hi everyone, i recently had a microdiscectomy because of a prolapsed disc as a last resort, i had lost the feeling in the back of my thigh, knee, ankle and most of my foot and 2 toes, spending 3 months in a wheelchair and still been in excrutiating pain at 33 years old with a hubby and 6 kids i felt i had no choice, the op itself was not as bad as the pain i was allready suffering id hoped my life would be much better, however when returning for a checkup 6 weeks later i was still in pain and had not regained the feeling back in my leg, my surgeon explained he had taken away 35% of the disc but it looked like the disc has prolaped again, has this happened to anyone else? are there any other options? if anyone out there has any answers please let me know i just want my life back, i have tried physio, accupuncture and reflexolgy, now the only way i can leave my house is in a wheelchair, please help



Gosh Lizzy, you have been through it! Could I do a post on our Healing and Prayers forum for you? I know fellow HPers would be happy to help. Or perhaps you'd like to post it yourself?



thankyou, thats very kind of you, i would be very grateful to if you could do a post for me.



Hi Lyzzy,
Have you tried anything like Acupuncture, Shiatsu or Bowen Technique? There is no gurantee, but a fair chance that it will help. Acupuncture is great for pain relief.
Hope you get better soon,
Artemis



Dear Lizzy70 - I have to admit that, that does sound like a nasty one.
An intervertebral disk cannot fully prolapse twice, so may have been a partial prolapse and this could only be confirmed, if you have had a further MRI after the surgery. But it dosen't sound like that either, if you've been told that they removed 35% of it. They're are other possibilities. i've thrown some of the jargon in so that you can understand some of terms your consultant may use. Or so that you can use them, so s/he knows you have a reasonable understanding of the problem & they don't need to over simplify.
Some background.
The outer & main part of the disk is tough rubber cartilage & called the annulous. That contains a soft centre called the nucleous. With most disk injuries the annulous breaks down over time or a single incident & weakens (for various reasons - another day).
When we bend our lumbar spines forward, this puts a great deal of pressure on the rear of the disk, forcing the nucleous backwards. This causes a weakened annulus to bulge (herniate) and in some cases (like yours) to actually burst out (fully prolpase) and occasionally you get fragments of the annulous breaking off too. The latter sounds is very likely a case for surgery. [:o]
A bulge or prolapse most commonly occurs at the rear and off to one side of the disk. There's a broard flat ligament that runs down the back of the vertebrae & disks that manages to prevent most prolapses going straight back. These rarely happen, but can cause compression of tha actual spinal cord when they do. Signs of this include: numbness around the crotch (saddle anaesthesia), loss of bladder &/or bowel control & total loss of power (or feeling) in both legs that is not due to pain alone. Any or all of those call an ambulance. [&:]
The result of a prolapse is very variable with different people depending on their anatomy, physiology & even psychology.
The soft gel like substance of the nucleous squishes out right next to the nerve root, causing local inflammation of the nerve, so brain thinks the pain is in the areas of the leg that those nerve fibres supply (arm if disk in neck).
Also, as in your case - it causes compression of the nerve root which causes it to stop working. If they are motor nerves to activate muscles, then you get weakness or if they are sensory nerves, then you get numbness in the areas supplied.
Over 90% of us have a disk injury of one sort or another, so you could say it is normal, although yours does sound more toward the nasty end of the scale. The end result of most is that we lose a millimeter or 2 from the height of the disk. Posted on this elsewhere in Back Pain Forum. :eek:
Nerve injury.
Even a full prolapse is unlikely to have severed the nerve completely, so may well recover in time. But there is a small risk of it being accidentally severed by the surgeon. Are they a neurosurgeon (neurologist) or an orthopaedic surgeon?
Important Bits
* I you have some power in your leg/s, then you're more likely to improve if you bite the bullet & get your self up & moving as best you can, without over-doing it & if you have not been advised otherwise. This will stimulate the nerve - muscle/skin communication & if you are completely unable to do this, then at least visualise yourself - standing, walking running, etc. There's good research to suggest that this is stimulates nerve repair.
* They would only know for sure if the disk has further prolapsed if the have done a follow-up MRI scan.
* There are a few other possibilities that can cause & maintain the numbness & weakness, including - Piriformis syndrome (sciatica proper, true sciatica) - in a 3rd of the population the main nerve for the leg (sciatic nerve trunk), actually runs through the belly of the piriformis muscle deep in the buttock. This can cause the nerve to not function properly & can cause pain, numbness or weakness.
Final Note
I did treat someone that had a diskectomy, with little/no relief & they were told that the disk h