Pain after 3rd surgery......HELP

In Feb of this year I had the 3rd back surgery....the fusion on the 2nd attempt did not take however on this past try I went elsewhere to seek medical advice. The Neuorsurgeon that did the past 2 surgerys said nothing was wrong that I just needed time to heal so after the fact that I was having sever back pain and total numbness in my right leg and loss of bladder control I went elsewhere. They did a fusion once again L5/S1 and put rods and metal cages in and this was Feb of this year. But now I have burning sensations around the scar area on the right side and on my hip with sever numbness which I have never had before. My doctor said that alot of times the brain remembers the pain from before and that he thinks that is the problem. So Iam now on 10 Neurotin and 75mg of Elavil. I still think something is going on and Iam scared........PLEASE SEND ADVICE

[CCF Neuro[P] MD, RPS]

Dear Sherry:

Sorry to hear about your problem.  It is not uncommon to see people to still have their pain after surgery, unfortunately.  Without seeing the films, doing the exam, knowing what things looked like before the surgery it is difficult to tell you anything.  Maybe another MRI to see if there are changes, a good neurological exam to compare to the ones before surgery might help.  What do the rehab team members tell you about what is going on?  How is your rehab doing?  Often, they can tell you more as they have seen you daily/weekly and know you best.  Neurontin can be pushed to very high levels, but more frequent dosing is required.  

Sorry, I can't help you more.  You may need to sit down and talk to your neurosurgeon and see what the realistic outcome of the surgeries are meant to be.  If all else fails, I would get a second opinion.

Sincerely,

CCF Neuro MD