Help Chronic Pain

Question:

I would like to communicate with other runners who have successfully recovered from a discectomy.  I went three months last fall with debilitating back pain and at Xmas opted for a discectomy (L4L5).  I used to run 4-5 miles three or four times a week, cycled and swam.  I used to do triathlons and am now 46 years of age.  After 10 weeks I still have numbness in my right foot (the affected side), some twinges in my buttock area and no back pain but I certainly can’t run yet.  I am able to walk about 4 times a week, 30 min. a time at a gentle pace.  I have been told that my numbess, and "twinges" are due to the nerve taking a long time to heal.  I don’t have any excruciating pain anymore and so I suppose the surgery was "successful" but I am concerned about how long it seems to be taking to get back to my former running and active self.  I communicated with some of you before but would appreciate any insights, suggestions and helpful comments. Thanks..John McNichol

Response:

John, I’m glad to hear that the discectomy took care of your pain.  I had a lumbar (L3-L4) lamenectomy at the end of Feb ‘96.  I started running lightly around Sept/Oct of ‘96, so it took me about 7 months to recover enough to run.   A lamenectomy is where the drill out the middle of the disk to relieve pressure on a bulging disk, & the let the middle of the disk build up w/ scar tissue, which is very similar to inner disk matter.  My recovery depended on the disk building up w/ enough scar tissue to support my upper body sufficiently. As you probably know, the length of time it takes for the numbness to go away depends on how severe & how long the nerve was compressed.   My nerve was compressed for about 9 nine years, but only mildly severe until the last 1.5 years.  It took the numbness (in the my right hamstring) about 2 months to go away, although I felt some very minor numbness, inconsistently after that. The biggest surprise for me was how good it felt & easy it was to run w/ the nerve pressure relieved.  I expected to feel the back improvement, but I was suprised at how good my right hamstring felt when I ran.  In comparison, it was like running w/ a leg weight on my right leg before I had surgery. On top of that, I barely have a scar anymore, it has almost completely healed.  It’s now just just a 2.5", mild pink line on my spine. My hat goes off to Dr. Edwin R. Buster of Capital Neurosurgical in Austin, Texas for a job WELL DONE. Steve – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text -I would like to communicate with other runners who have successfully recovered from a discectomy.  I went three months last fall with debilitating back pain and at Xmas opted for a discectomy (L4L5).  I used to run 4-5 miles three or four times a week, cycled and swam.   I used to do triathlons and am now 46 years of age.  After 10 weeks I still have numbness in my right foot (the affected side), some twinges in my buttock area and no back pain but I certainly can’t run yet.   I am able to walk about 4 times a week, 30 min. a time at a gentle pace.  I have been told that my numbess, and "twinges" are due to the nerve taking a long time to heal.  I don’t have any excruciating pain anymore and so I suppose the surgery was "successful" but I am concerned about how long it seems to be taking to get back to my former running and active self.  I communicated with some of you before but would appreciate any insights, suggestions and helpful comments. Thanks..John McNichol

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Response:

John,

I’ve had 2 surgeries and a total of 5 disks repaired and I’ve been running continuously for 3 years as of Mar 1.  (My DR suggested I give up running)  I still have occasional soreness and twinges but I find it’s doesn’t occur when I slowly stretch and start off running slow and giving my body time to warm up.  It seems it’s only been 10 weeks from your surgery and from my experience you are being unrealistic about how quick this is going to heal.  Give it 6 months from my experience.  Running long never causes me any problems but if I get on the track and try to do hard intervals I do get those twinges and tightening and haven’t found a way to overcome it . . .

Response:

- Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – John, I’ve had 2 surgeries and a total of 5 disks repaired and I’ve been running continuously for 3 years as of Mar 1.  (My DR suggested I give up running)  I still have occasional soreness and twinges but I find it’s doesn’t occur when I slowly stretch and start off running slow and giving my body time to warm up.  It seems it’s only been 10 weeks from your surgery and from my experience you are being unrealistic about how quick this is going to heal.  Give it 6 months from my experience.  Running long never causes me any problems but if I get on the track and try to do hard intervals I do get those twinges and tightening and haven’t found a way to overcome it . . .

– Does anyone have experience with endoscopic discectomy? I will undergo this procedure next week which is about 6 weeks after the onset of my acute back attack and associated pains and numbness in the legs. The MRI shows a severe lateral bulge at L3/4 which makes me an ideal candidate for this procedure which doesn’t require much cutting and uses a local anaesthetic. While I am past the crippling phase, the numbness and pain persists, a ski trip was cancelled, and running is out of the question for now. Any comments on the recovery from this procedure are welcome. Thanks, Kerry Stewart

Response:

Does anyone have experience with endoscopic discectomy? I will undergo this procedure next week which is about 6 weeks after the onset of my acute back attack and associated pains and numbness in the legs. The MRI shows a severe lateral bulge at L3/4 which makes me an ideal candidate for this procedure which doesn’t require much cutting and uses a local anaesthetic. While I am past the crippling phase, the numbness and pain persists, a ski trip was cancelled, and running is out of the question for now. Any comments on the recovery from this procedure are welcome. Thanks, Kerry Stewart

Howdy! I had a similar procedure done (laminectomy) done on the 17th of January. I still have minor to moderate pain two months later and all though my legs are raring to go running and biking, my back is not.  I have started to walk as fast I can without actually running on a treadmill for a few miles every other day.  Hope to start biking in two weeks, running in four. My says to wait four more months but don’t know if I can… — Armand R. Duco www.re-co.com/~armand

Response:

- Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – Does anyone have experience with endoscopic discectomy? I will undergo this procedure next week which is about 6 weeks after the onset of my acute back attack and associated pains and numbness in the legs. The MRI shows a severe lateral bulge at L3/4 which makes me an ideal candidate for this procedure which doesn’t require much cutting and uses a local anaesthetic. While I am past the crippling phase, the numbness and pain persists, a ski trip was cancelled, and running is out of the question for now. Any comments on the recovery from this procedure are welcome. Thanks, Kerry Stewart Howdy! I had a similar procedure done (laminectomy) done on the 17th of January. I still have minor to moderate pain two months later and all though my legs are raring to go running and biking, my back is not.  I have started to walk as fast I can without actually running on a treadmill for a few miles every other day.  Hope to start biking in two weeks, running in four. My says to wait four more months but don’t know if I can… — Armand R. Duco www.re-co.com/~armand

– I had the discectomy done by endoscope and was out of the hospital about an hour later. These new procedures are great as far as patient stress and discomfort.  I was able to walk a slow  mile today  (the day after surgery) with minimal pain which I think is mostly from the small incision. The numbness in my leg is about half of what it was although I am told to expect it to last for a few weeks. There doesn’t seem to be any specific guidelines about how soon to resume running. My plan is to walk daily and just see what happens over the next few weeks before getting back to more vigorous activity. Anyone else with