I am better only 3 weeks after surgery than I have been in close to 2 years. I have no trouble saying I am pain free. I have some tightness/stiffness but I can't even classify it as discomfort. Before the surgery I could barely walk to the bathroom, even on a large amount of narcotic pain meds. Now, I can do almost anything (within proper restrictions), I'm walking 2-3 miles a day, and with no pain, and no pain meds.

Try to keep a running total. Thanks

I'm better - at least on MY scale.

My agonizing sciatic nerve pain and the CES are gone.

The new numbness I got post-op is still really bad.

I KNOW that technically numbness rates worse on the Dr.'s scale, but I would take numbness over pain almost any day!

I am better, actually much better that the last few years when I did not even know that I had back problems. I thought I was just getting old, with sciatica. But maybe that is one of the things to pay attention to, as I read before tmy 3-level spinal fusion that surgery is more effective treating sciatica like pain than dealing with back pain.

Kin

I am only 1 month post PLIF...perhaps I am a bit premature to say this...but I am much better than I was a month and a few days ago! I was literally crying myself to sleep prior to the surgery. Now I have some stiffness and tightness...a few pains here and there. But, the overall success is that I am mostly pain free and take Tylenol for when I go to bed. Thumbs up surgery in my book.

Take care,

Misty

wasn't sure if you were adding you're own +1? below the 1rst reply?

Misty

I am better.

sorry to say after 8 weeks, I am still worse, I have worse nerve pain/numbness then pre-op and have since the day of/after surgery, hoping one day to be able to add to the yesses. One day at a time

No difference, I'm only 2 months post op but am the same as before. I'm hopeful to change my vote by month 6.

worse,thats why i'm having another surgery.

worse. My leg pain is gone but my back pain is worse.

I feel so much better. I don't have the pain in both legs, feet or both sides of my butt any more. I don't lock up after sitting anymore, I don't walk like an ape anymore. Don't get me wrong, I still get stiff every once in a while but it is not pain.

I'm wondering if a "post op time period" should factor into this. Since it is quite common for folks to not understand how long the healing process can be for certain surgeries, it may skew the results. That is depending on how much accuracy you are looking for.

"C"

sorry worse off now then, before bilevel spinal fusion in 03/07.
sorry jwl about count, but like someone pointed out, did you add yourself once, or twice?
Bobbi Jo

I'm 100% better.

I still have problems, but I can walk without a cane, I don't nearly give people a heart attack when I gasp in horrible pain and then can't move for several minutes. Before surgery, that was my life. I remember locking up and nearly screaming in pain while pitting cherries!! Good grief - if squeezing a cherry pitter causes such low back spasms that you can't move, life really sucks!! I can walk, I can work, I can do a lot of things. Yes, I'm stiff; yes, I get painful at times; but life is one heck of a lot better than it was pre-surgery.

Linda

The healing period after back procedures varies enormously and depends on many factors. Those factors may include, but are not limited to:-

THE TYPE OF SURGERY

THE SCOPE AND DETAIL

THE SPECIFIC AREA

THE AGE OF THE PATIENT

HOW WELL THE PATIENT GENERALLY RECOVERS

HOW PHYSICALLY FIT THE PATIENT IS

In my case specifically, while I do not suffer POST SURGICALLY from Sciatic pain any more, I still get muscle aches if I overdo it. I know that discomfort like that will subside in due time with exercise, muscle recovery and healing, which according to my surgeon could take around one year from the date of the surgery give or take a few weeks either way. Based on that and the above, together with the opinion of HAGLANDC I am not completely sure that your survey without some specific timescale will have very much meaning or indeed usefulness.

I sincerely hope and trust that you will accept my comments as constructive.

John B

I am better 1 year post PLIF L5-S1 but different. The pain in my right foot some days is killer. Like keep me away from power tools. At least my back pain is now manageable. Still driving many Docs mad about the foot.

I had my back surgery in 1996, I was glad I had the surgery, and pain now is nothing like I experienced pre-surgery.

Liz

Its taken 2 and a half years, but I am much better than before the fusion.

Dick

I know everyone on this site knows with pain you have good days and bad. I used back surgery in general and realize that there are many different types of surgery. These surgeries range from moderate to severe. There are numerous differences in people's ages, general health and attitudes.I am almost a month post op for 360. I am doing fantastic right now, but I have no idea how I will be 6 months from now.You will find on this site some who still have tremendous pain and others who are pain free. Many times people on their post have asked is it worth it. My goal was simply to give people an idea of those who are better from their surgey as opposed to those who were not. I hope this clears up and misunderstandings. Today in what ever state of recovery you are in, what ever type back surgery you have had are you better right now or not?

Scientific answer = My back hurts worse.

Unscientific answer = My back hurts worse.

2 3/4 years post op 2 level ALIF with instrumentation, 43 yr old male, active.

Keith

JWL

The concern is that without specific parameters, it is easy to give someone a false sense of success or failure in regards to surgery. During the decision making process, just a small snapshot (as the way your request is currently set up) can be extremely misleading and would be tragic if it led someone to make a decision about surgery that either denied them relief or caused more suffering.

Early on in post op months, depending on many of the listed criteria that John provided, a person may feel their surgery was a success only to find out a year or two later it was exactly the opposite. Or someone who is having a hard time healing (say they are a smoker, elderly, diabetic etc ...) may initially say their surgery was a failure. Then they find a year or two later, it was a great success and they just had a difficult healing period due to other contributing factors.

It is difficult to express my concerns about your survey without it appearing that you are the target of some sort of flame. Not so. I applaud your desire to do something good. The hope is that you keep in mind how many thousands of people a day read posts on this forum. With a topic like this, it will draw more viewers than the vast majority of other threads. If it is misleading to the unknowing and unsuspecting, it's unfair.

"C"

I did not post this to hurt anyones feelings, or cause any problems. Nor am I trying to suggest to anyone they should have any surgery of any type. This is a personel decision you have to make. I would hope that everyone who has gone through these surgeries would be 100% better and pain free,sadly this does not happen in the real world. For some, no amount of medicine, no surgery helps with the pain and that truly is depressing.

Simple question, Are you better right now or not? As I said 1 month post op 360 fusion and feeling great. 6 months from now, if I was asked, I might say fantastic or it was the worst decision I ever made. We just have to take every day as it comes and be thankful for the blessings of the day. God Bless all who suffer!

We know you didn't mean to hurt anyone's feelings or cause problems, nobody's feelings were hurt and you didn't cause ANY problems(I don't know why anyone gets so riled up about things, it's really no big deal). I think it is an interesting topic, just way too many variables. Just for the record I am 10 1/2 weeks out and feel worse and right now I wouldn't go through this again for all the money in the world, but I SINCERELY hope this will change in 4-5 months.
Have a good day everyone,
Rachel

I think that there is no harm in jwl12250's original question. It's a question that almost all of us thought about before our respective surgeries.

So long as we all recognise that the answers, and any conclusions drawn therefrom, are purely anecdotal and not scientific.

For the record I would be a +1.

I am much better now. Had my surgery on April 29th of 2008 and feeling great now.
Its been a long time since I logged into this website. I am sorry to hear that there are people that are still not doing so well and my heart goes out to you. I wish you all a SPEEDY recovery and will keep you all in my prayers.

Let's see...

I woke up one morning in approximately 2005 and could not put any pressure on my right leg. I could not stand straight, could not sit. Could only stand (as long as I was leaning on something) or lie down. If I did any walking, it was with a cane - at the age of 42!

According to an MRI, I had a herniated disc (L5-S1), but I kept thinking I'd get better. Needless to say, that was so very very stupit on my part.

I had surgery in 2/06 - hemilaminectomy I think... As soon as I woke up from the surgery, I could tell the difference! I was up walking within hours; left the hospital the next day (although my surgeon told me I'd have to be in the hospital 2 days) I felt so much better!

I even went to work within 2 weeks (again, stupid stupid! I should have waited at least 4 weeks). I figured, since I felt so much better, I must have been healed up enough to resume regular activities?!?

Although I still had/have other spine issues (almost every disc in my neck is bulged, I have DDD, bulges at T1/2 and other bulges in my L-Spine), I am better off for having the surgery I did.

Only problem is that I waited too long for the surgery. I have EMG/NCS evidence of permanent nerve damage at L5/S1 on the right thanks to my reluctance to "go under the knife". I'd do it again in a heart beat (I'd like to think I wouldn't wait as long, though) and would encourage anyone with the same problem I had to do so as well.

Epidural Steroid Injections and Nerve Blocks only provided temporary relief (hours); a trial RadioFrequency Lesioning (nerve ablation) showed some promise, but I was rear-ended - I want to say that was around September 2004. My doctor was reluctant to attribute the increasing pain I had to the car accident, so I settled for policy limits of $10k (half of which went to pay medical bills). A few months after settling, things went completely downhill seemingly without brakes. Then I had the surgery in 2006.

So... if I've learned anything it's this: listen to your body - it hurts for a reason so deal with it immediately. Also, if I am ever rear-ended again, I will seek an attorney who specializes in personal injury and not settle anything until I know for sure I am okay.

Well, that's my 10 cent worth (hey - inflation hits everyone!)

For what it's worth!

PS:
L S U Geaux TIGERS!!!

How very sad that a couple of people found my post unacceptable. I am convinced that in a world as diverse as this forum, if I was to offer Dollar Bills for 50 Cents each or indeed Sterling Pound coins for 50 pence each, some people would find something wrong or offensive with that too.

To jump to the conclusion of “rude” or “offensive” or indeed “uncivil” as Christina69, Liz49 and “Lovinggardener” did, is clearly patently inappropriate in the circumstances. There cannot be anything inappropriate or offensive if it describes the absolute truth.

I merely pointed out the actual facts here so that people reading this thread would be aware of the complete lack of physical properties in such a survey, so that other unsuspecting folk looking at the outcome of the survey would not be prompted to make a personal decision based upon such results for their own account. As haglandc so rightly said, “If it is misleading to the unknowing and unsuspecting, it's unfair.”
In the same vein there was never any intention to upset anybody whatsoever and I never really knew that the use of uppercase letters could be quite so incredibly provoking or inflammatory.

Fortunately, the majority of posts here were not of the same opinion as those few referred to in para.2 above and I know that “JWL12250” just like me, never set out to hurt anyones feelings or cause problems, because she said just that in her last post.

John B

B

I am not a back surgery person. However I want to say that I for one find this post to be helpful. I have considered surgery ----- hmmmmmm about 1000 times lol but the facts of my specific needs and out come always leave me with a sound "no".

BUT back to my point - it is posts like these I return to when I am rethinking my decision

I can walk without a cane now and no longer spend my days in bed. I also have full use of my arms and fingers. I feel very fortunate.

Faith M

I am glad to see the responses have gotten back on track with the original question..

John said his piece, the rebuttals to his response have been made and defended. Let's leave it at that.

Please, from here on out - let's only address the original question:

Are you better off or worse after surgery?

Thank you. Carry on....

Just have to say in support of jwl that I think we all know that this site is a place to exchange thoughts and ideas and no one would expect the survey to be in any way scientific nor to be any professional source of information - just a way to exchange experiences.

I did well following my lumbar PLIF in 1993 and lived a great relatively lumbar pain free existence until April of this year so I'd definitely say it worked. I'm just unlucky enough that I have a ton of orthopedic issues so now i have a new level that needs to be fixed and I again expect success.

Both my cervical surgeries did help my symptoms. Especially the ACDF.

All in all, yes, I've improved after each surgery. I know that I'll never be 100% based on my history.

I am glad to see this thread heading back the right way. For a couple of posts, we were going to close this one down.
Everyone has a right to their opinion, we never try to stop that, but when one person voices their feelings and others jump down on them, that is wrong.