L5-S1 Microdiscectomy - part 2

[Jeff222]

My wife had a microdiscectomy 7 days ago. She never realized the relief we were told to expect and the pain remained in her right leg. The doctor has told us, after a follow-up MRI, that there must have been sole additional disc fragments that moved post-surgery. She is, right now, in pre-op waiting for her second surgery in a week.

My questions are:
Is our doctor being straight with us, or covering for substandard results?
How frequently does this occur?

Thanks,
Jeff

[Fluffysmom]

You should request a copy of the Operation Report.  It may give you a clearer picture of how the first surgery went.  

I found out from one of my knee surgery op reports that my cartilage was in much worse shape than my surgeon let me know.

I went along on a consultation with a neurosurgeon with my best friend; she was told that there was a 50-50 chance that surgery would relieve her pain.  Her issue was cervical, but they also discussed her lumbar spine, which is in almost as bad shape.

She had seen a neurologist before the neurosurgeon, who had told her that she needed surgery right away, and wouldn't even discuss pain management with her or anything, just told her to see a neurosurgeon.

I have read of people needing a second surgery; I think the spine is very tricky to work with; they don't want to dig around too much and damage the spinal cord or nerve roots, and there is so much going on around the spine that it's difficult to visualize everything.

I hope that your wife's surgery today is a complete success.  Take good care of her, and yourself.

Kathy

[CuriousHound]

If the pain does not go away, Neurontin really helped me with the leg pain after my microdiscectomy.  The doctor said it was nerve damage.