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Discectomy L4 L5

I've been struggling with severe back pain since February. I got a 2nd opinion and surgery seems to be my best option. I'm only 31 years old and have a 6 year old daughter and this back pain has caused so many issues. I can't do anything without popping a lot of pain medicine before and after. I bent over last week and twinged it just right and it s caused my pain to get alot worse. I called my surgeon first thing yesterday and his assistant luckily worked me in. He did 2 shots and it didn't touch the pain and hurt like heck when he did it. He suggested surgery as soon as possible. His assistant put me in for surgery this Thursday as long as she can get the insurance to get back with us with approval. I'm praying they come through in time. He had me on Lortab 7.5 6x a a day. The Lortab hasn't been touching the pain so yesterday he wrote me Percoset 10 5x a day. It seema to help some.
Anyways sorry for the book. What I want opionions on is what to expect after surgery. He said it would take about an hour and its outpatient. He said take two weeks off work. What do I have to expect pain wise when I wake up and go home? Any tips on how to make things better? Im super scared to have back surgery but I have to try something because this pain is ridiculous. Please any comments or opinions would be great. Thank you.
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Avatar universal
Hi tuck, I just wonder how your dad went long term after the op. Suggesting to a 31 year old spinal surgey is an option is almost crazy. Unless ashleyp1984 is immobilised by cord compression a disceptomy at her age would lead almost certainly to rapid degeneration of the surrounding disks and increased pain as the calcification and arthritis creep in over time. I do not like to see young paople led to believe these"simple" techniques are effective...They are simply not and all long term research indicates varying degrees of degeneration. complications and further more "intense" surgery. Doing it on 80 year old or even 65+ is fine but please only recommend it to young ones if they are really really wheelchair bound by restricted movement. Pain long term ***** but at least I still have mobility......peace dude
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Avatar universal
Hi Ashley. i'm Deano from australia. I have had severe debilitating back pain since a small injury to l4/5 in 2000. I now have a diagnosis of Degenerative Disk Disease(meaningless). L4/5 desiccated, moderate to large bulge and central protrusion L5/6 both touching on but not convincingly impinging nerve roots.... S1 and 2 mild protrusions and buldging touching on but not compressing nerve root. T7 wedged 20 +% and end plate deformity. Degenerative changes throughout Lumbar and Thoracic Spine and arthritic changes to the facet joints throughout the thorolumbar region. I have also just discovered due to migrains over the last 20 years following a low grade CT scan moderate central protrusions and buldging at C4/5 and C5/6 with narrowing of the foramina. So my back is buggered.....I am 40 and have been fighting it since 24. Surgery is almost always not going to work. Especially the old L4/5 disceptomy. The only reason I would ever consider a disceptomy is if nerves were impinged 60%+ or if the spinal cord itself was bieng compressed. Over the years I have witnessed first hand some of the surgery work that is done and anyone who can still walk a bit, move, wash and drive must not consider this operation. As my observations in pain clinics and such is that persons having operations especially where degenerative condition is active almost always end upo FAR FAR worsewith greater restricted movement, faster degeneration of the surrounding disks and complications galore. i know a bad back ***** and is almost evil to have to live with but please look around those pain clinics and ask to see patients who have had operations over five years ago. All of them will tell you DO NOT DO IT. They like insurance jobs but once they compromise your spine it is all downhill. I have heard the mirical stories but after 15 years of looking have not had a positive story from anyone on disk surgery unless it is reshaping and removing only the buldge some success but it is patchy and looks more to me like a money taking scam due to the high failure rate and long term degeneration of the surrounding areas which guess what? GETS YOU BACK FOR MORE $$$$$$$ never forget mediocos are businesses. Businesses have nothing to do with fixing or helping it is all about taking....STAY STRONG and fight it with anything you can but not surgery untill you are cant walk.....peace out
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547368 tn?1440541785
Hello Ashley,

Welcome to our Back and Neck Forum. I'm sorry to hear you are about to undergo surgery. As you know a Discectomy is surgery to remove lumbar (low back) herniated disc material that is pressing on a nerve root or the spinal cord. Are you having the standard discectomy or a microdiscectomy?

How successful this surgery is will depend on several things, first how skilled the surgeon and second how your particular condition responds to the surgery.

Obviously you will have the standard "surgical pain" post-op. However the pain caused by your disc should be much improved almost immediately. My father was up and walking down the halls without any disc pain within 12 hours. He did remarkable well and obviously he was much older than you. He had the standard discectomy.

Indeed his pain was so significantly improved he refused pain medication when the nurse offered it. I insisted he take it before he was ambulated and discharged. He never took another pain med for his back. The pain was extreme and had immobilized him prior to the discectomy.

I wish you the best and hope you'll have the same great outcome. Please let us know how you do postoperative.  I'll look forward to your updates.

Best of Luck,
~Tuck
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