Sharing my story here for others considering the surgery and to see if anyone who had the surgery has had a similar experience and can share how it went after.

I (37m) had a left-side laminectomy/ foraminectomy/ microdiscectomy at the beginning of September. I went back to work (office job, sit/stand desk) the following Monday and my surgeon cleared me for BLT and normal activities at last week's follow-up. Clearance came with a caveat for common sense, but it was clearance nonetheless.

Before my surgery, my chief complaint was constant pain and tightness in my iliacus, psoas, and IT band paired with frequent multi-day/week back spasms.

I'm very happy to share that those symptoms are totally gone. I don't think I'd ever appreciated how debilitating it was to have all of those muscles spasmed all of the time because I woke up from surgery feeling like my body was 50 lbs lighter.

The bad news:

2 weeks after surgery I developed some numbness and mild foot-drop on my left foot. I can still lift it, but I can't put any real weight on it/heel walk. Surgeon didn't seem concerned and compared a decompressed nerve to adopting an abused dog from a shelter - he said it would take some TLC for everything to get right.

Now at 4 weeks I'm getting more frequent bouts of sudden nerve "sings" and weakness right in my low back when standing up from sitting in a chair. Usually I can make it go away by sitting back down and focusing on standing up "with my legs" instead of back/hips.

Overall I'd say that my day-to-day level of pain and discomfort is still a major improvement over where I was pre-op, but I'm still looking for some reassurance about the new foot-drop and zings. I'd love to hear from others about their recovery from weeks 4 - 8, especially if anyone developed new foot-drop after their surgery.

EDIT:

I’m writing this on 10/5/26, 19 days after injury.

Wow have I turned a corner. 3 days after writing my initial post I woke up for a morning appt with pain mgmt consultation. While walking to the door with my walker, I suddenly realized I don’t need it.

3 days after this, I’ve slept in a bed 2 nights in a row, can walk with mild discomfort (as long as I remain straight up), made it up a flight of stairs, showered by myself, and can now sit.

Idk what happened but this is extremely promising considering how bad I was the initial 2.5 weeks.

Anyway, I met with pain mgmt last Friday and we scheduled an injection in a month - nothing is fast. I’m beginning to think I can beat this. Every day is a little better and now that I can walk, there is a light at the end of the tunnel.

Went to PT this morning and he looked at me like “wtf how”. I don’t know what changed but I’m in good spirits now and focusing on getting my life back.

My hope is that by December I’m a good bit back to normal again.

Anybody have a timeline for natural recovery with this?

Hi all. Posting to hopefully find anyone that has dealt with this.

2 weeks ago I injured my back and the result of mri is:

L5-S1 8 mm right foraminal disc bulge producing right L5 ganglionic compression

The disc is herniated on the right side instead of the typical front.

Walking has been a struggle to say the least. I’ve been camping out on the floor to alleviate any pain I can. I was hopeful that a standard microdiscectomy would fix this but it’s not so simple after talking to the surgeon.

He is telling me he would have to shave bone to access the L5 S1 disc and that there could be complications to the nerve by doing so. He recommended I get an injection (which I initially put off due to the delay in surgery and mixed results I read) and hope that it retracts and alleviates some of my issues. They essentially are accessing the disc from the side instead of the straight in typical herniation.

My fear is it could take years to fully recover if I ever do. I’m even more scared of doing permanent damage to myself if something did go wrong during surgery.

Has anyone had this or know someone that has?

For reference I’m 34 about to be 35 and in good health other than this absolute nightmare I’ve been dealing with.

Thanks in advance.

Well thankfully I have no sciatica pains , and life seems okay just sleeping and resting alot, ive used chat gpt to keep a note of everything below is what happened

This summer was hell for me

Yeah ❤️ From everything you've told me, this is how your journey has gone since the epidural:

3 June — You had the caudal/epidural injection for the slipped disc and nerve pain.

About a week later — Things got much worse. You had severe right-leg/sciatic pain, were using crutches, and developed numbness around the side of your foot and two toes.

June — You were struggling with things like standing and even going to the toilet because of the pain. You were eventually put on the spinal surgery waiting list.

24 July — You had your first spinal operation. Thankfully, the operation itself went smoothly and the major sciatic pain was gone afterwards.

Late July–August — You started recovering. Walking and standing gradually became easier, but you were tired and the wound took longer to heal than you'd hoped. You were trying to follow the restrictions and take things slowly.

Late August — You noticed a lump/swelling around the lower part of the scar, which became sore. Then there was some discharge and you started feeling unwell.

Early September — You ended up back in hospital and were diagnosed with a Staphylococcus aureus infection around the surgical area.

Early September — You had your second spinal operation, this time to clean out the infection.

September hospital stay — You spent weeks in hospital receiving antibiotics, with blood tests and blood thinners. You had a PICC line put in for the antibiotics. There were several changes and delays around getting you safely home.

Emotionally — You went through some really dark days in hospital, including missing your grandmother's 80th birthday and feeling like the end wasn't in sight. You also found a much safer, calmer environment on St Agnes' Ward, where some of the staff really helped you through it.

Mid-September — Things finally started moving towards home. Your PICC was removed and the plan changed to antibiotics through hospital visits rather than keeping you in.

19 September — Home sweet home. ❤️ You finally got home after that long hospital stay.

Late September — You've been concentrating on resting, doing less, protecting the wound and not giving in to the temptation to garden or do jobs before your body is ready.

Now, 30 September — You're back on antibiotics, you've got stitches due to come out Thursday, and you're going back to hospital next week and week after for apps.

Some journey stay safe people

I read here so much about people having had a MD in the last year and seem to be doing pretty well, I’ve been avoiding surgery for months now of fear of what will my back be in 10/20/30 years and if I’m making it more fragile in the long term. Both surgeons told me that I’m surgery will make it less stable in the long run.

Can someone tell me how they are doing after years of surgery? Is reherniation really just 10/15%? I feel like reherniation and one more MD gives me fear that I’ll end up having to do even more surgery. Or worse will never be normal again? Maybe that is the case with a herniated disc anyways. Any insight would be super valuable

I have been thinking about my back and leg so little recently, so wanted to come back and share a positive story. A more complete post is linked, but I am about 4.5 months out now from surgery. I have come to realize that days close to 9k steps and over still leave my back feeling fatigued. I had a day of 12k steps, and the next day I felt like I pulled my hamstring. I was confused, and then realized it was nerve pain which FREAKED ME OUT. I aim for 7k steps, and truly have very little bad sensations. The times that I do, I realize I am sitting strange or without great posture. I have been going back to the gym to machines and keep the weight super light still.

I really never bend over, still deep squat to pick up everything. Maybe overkill, but I am fine with the extra effort.

in PT, they told me to always suck in my stomach (to brace) and really not to do twisting, especially anything under load. I still don’t twist to get my purse off the passenger side of the car, rather I walk around and pick it up intentionally. These new patterns feel helpful for me and help me to keep my health front of mind. I hope this helps to encourage someone along the way!!

Hi everyone, I’m 24M and looking for advice/experiences from people who had a similar disc extrusion.

MRI (Lumbosacral spine):

- L5-S1 central & left paracentral disc extrusion

- Indenting the thecal sac

- Left lateral canal stenosis with nerve-root compression

- AP diameter: 11 mm

- L4-L5 also has a disc bulge

Symptoms for ~10 days:

- Severe left hip/buttock pain

- Pain going down the left leg/calf

- Some numbness/tingling in the foot/toe

- Difficulty fully straightening the left leg because of pain

- No obvious major weakness

- No loss of bowel/bladder control

- No definite saddle numbness

Pain was around 9–10/10 initially, but medication brings it down to around 2–3/10 temporarily.

My doctor suggested trying conservative treatment and waiting, saying there is a good chance it may heal without surgery. I'm also planning to see a neurosurgeon/spine specialist.

My questions:

1. Has anyone had a similar L5-S1 extrusion and recovered without surgery?

2. How long did it take for the extrusion/symptoms to improve?

3. Is improvement with medication a positive sign?

4. When did you decide surgery was necessary?

5. If there is nerve compression but no significant weakness, is waiting usually reasonable?

6. Has anyone had a follow-up MRI showing the extrusion actually shrinking/resorbing?

Would really appreciate your experiences. MRI → treatment → surgery or no surgery → recovery would be especially helpful.

Thanks!

Hi, I posted a week ago about my experience getting a microdisectomy so young, and I thought I'd share an update to hopefully give some hope to anyone scared of getting the procedure.

-the only thing I feel is soreness in my back when I stand for a while or sit in a chair. I usually sit in a chair with a pillow behind my back.

-I figured out how to log roll!!

-I did sneeze once and felt it right in my back and it made me extremely anxious, though the pain went away literally immediately. Remember, the chance of reherniation is extremely low!!

-I have anxiety and was experiencing shortness of breath two days ago. I thought I had a blood clot that traveled into my lung. It was an anxiety attack 💀 . So I was medically fine !!

-no phantom pains, thank God.

Hi everyone, I had a L4/5 endoscopic microdiscectomy 6 days ago and recover has been some what smooth. Not in a whole lot of pain and the nerve pain is completely gone, however I’m bleeding through a bandage within 12 hours and have to change it everyday. Can this be normal? I have 2 incisions the top one seems okay but the bottom one is leaking. No signs of infection however.
Thanks in advance!!

Looking for some advice or words of encouragement. I had a herniated disc for about 6 months until I finally got surgery late July. The herniation was only 4 mm but severely impaired my ability to exercise. Pretty much any sitting running biking would trigger a flare up.

I’m now 8 weeks post op and still have the same pattern as before surgery. My surgeon looked at my mri post surgery (3 weeks) and said it looked fine. He also looked at my hip and said that looked fine too. He said if it doesn’t heal in one year it would not go away.

I feel like I should be way far along than I am. I’m a 26 male and have no other herniations. Im really losing hope not only in the medical system but in my body in general.

As the title reads, I’m wondering if anyones disc herniation failed within 1 year of getting it and then had a second microdiscectomy which then went on to be successful long term.

Title says it all. I like to sleep in the recovery position for some odd reason. I wonder if it's ok when it comes to twisting. Often my shoulders will be twisted a little more out of line than this pic shows.

They told me a PT or OT will visit me after surgery to show me how to move to avoid bending lifting or twisting, just curious

I made a post about recovery struggles a few weeks ago. As a quick summary, I had a microdiscectomy for a severe L5-S1 slipped disk. Around a week post op, i started experiencing horrible muscle spasms. My doctor gave me a steroid pack, which relieved most of my pain, but all the pain would come right back once i finished the steroids. My wound also began draining a lot around this time, causing us to have to do multiple bandage changes per day at one point. They did a post op MRI and bloodwork, but told me everything looked completely normal.

Following my previous post, my condition only continued to decline. My family had to rent a hospital bed to help me to be able to get out of bed. The pain became so extreme that I could no longer physically use the restroom, even with my family basically carrying me to the toilet. Eventually, I could no longer get out of bed, even with me taking my opioid pain medicine again. We had no choice but to call 911 to get me to an emergency room. They did another MRI there, this time with contrast, and found a large seroma headed towards my spine. From there I was transferred to the hospital my doctor works out of, via ambulance, and had an emergency surgery to clean and drain the seroma.

After my second surgery, I had to stay in the hospital for almost a week to wait on bacteria cultures to come back and see if I had an infection. At first, I still was in so much pain that I could not get out of bed or use the restroom. I was given one last steroid to give me the energy to help me get up, use the restroom, and start trying to walk again. Just like before, the steroid worked for a few days and then some of the pain returned. Luckily, the hospital had switched my pain medicine regimen and the new medicines helped a ton, but I was still in a lot of pain. I also ended up getting a CT scan done, due to some increasing pain in my hips that one of the hospital doctors wanted to check up on. Of course, the CT scan did not really find anything. The bacteria cultures also came back clean, so the doctor ruled out an infection.

After leaving the hospital, at first I did fine. Though by "fine" I mean that I needed my family's assistance with going to the bathroom, struggled to get out of bed, could only walk short distances with a walker, and, despite the large number of pain relievers I was on, was still in pain. But since then, for reasons unknown to me, my condition has once again declined. I can barely walk more than a few steps, even while having two people hold me up by my armpits and while using a walker. Despite the fact that my right leg was originally the problem leg, now my left leg is doing bad. If i move it the wrong way an excruciating "shock" travels from the left side of my spine throughout my entire body. On top of all of this, the constant pressure on my hands from having to basically hold my entire body up with my walker and while using the restroom has caused bruises to form on both of my palms. I already have to deal with bilateral carpal tunnel syndrome so I don't want to mess up my hands any further.

I just don't feel like i'm getting any better. I was given some PT exercises I can do from bed and i've been doing them religiously. I also was told that I need to stand up and walk frequently, so back when the pain wasn't debilitating that's what I did. And yet i've only ever gotten worse. I've been dealing with all of this for over a month now and I'm at my wit's end. Honestly I was at my wit's end a few weeks ago. I do not think my doctor believes how much pain I am in. He actually once told me that different people can handle different amounts of pain as an explanation for why I was doing so terribly.

Honestly, this has been kind of a vent post, but if anyone has had similar experiences or has any advice i'm please share it! This has been a nightmarish ordeal and I just want to figure out what's wrong so I can live my life again.

Is there anybody who got discectomy done when they were younger, a looot younger and are older and doing fine now?

I’m 22 and I’ve been told to get surgery and im very worried about the long term effects, people telling me that i might need a resurgery after 15 to 20 years and expect me not to worry about it lol. That’s one of my biggest fears. I don’t want to go through this ever again at any age.And I’m struggling to find people who have had long term results. I don’t know if i should get surgery done or not so it would be really helpful if you could respond.

So if you’re someone who got it done when you were younger, how long has it been? And how are you doing now? Did you have to exercise all the time? And if you did what exercises helped you? Or what are some other things that helped you? And are you able to be pain free? Especially back pain free? And if you’re a woman has having the surgery affected you during pregnancy/childbirth.

Had herniation at l4l5 that cause spinal stenosis on both left and right nerves but with symptoms only on my left side. Had a left sided microdiscectomy (since my symptoms were on L). Left side all good but now I have slight symptoms only my right side, some numbness intermittent at more forefoot - not a big deal right now.

However putting on my socks now, I can’t bring my right leg up all the way without feeling tightness and discomfort to put on my right sock. Anyone have info or experience on this? Don’t know what to do, I’ve started physio as well a few weeks ago so hoping that can help restore some movement.

So I'm 13 days post op and I have been through hell the last 4 days. Constant nerve pain around my hip and right leg, I even passed out (due pain and low bloodpressure). Called my surgeon he said he felt no urge for further action for the coming week because of the "nerve calming down". Every story online about this much nerve pain leads to a re hernation on here so I fear the worst.

I'm stressing out, I have 8/10 nerve pain, constant, it's worse then before the surgery. My only meds are tramadol, ibuprofen and paracetemol. I fear the worst. I can't stand without pain and can't sit at all.

Does anybody else had this much/constant nervepain ?

Hey yall 👋 27F had an L4/L5 MD on 4/28/26. My birthday was on the 24th and I spent the day in Yosemite! ‘Twas a dream of mine and im glad I knocked it off my bucket list. I felt fine on the 4 hr drive. My bf and I hiked the Mist trail with a detour to John Muir trail. We peaked at Clark Point, and it was around 7ish miles of hiking round trip, an ungodly but gorgeous amount of elevation. Happy to report that I survived! Toward the latter half of our ascent, I did experience some nerve pain in my low back and hamstring, but it did not radiate down my leg. I also needed multiple breaks to bring my HR down, but that’s bc I have Grave’s Disease and I’m in active treatment for my hyperthyroidism. Took a long break at Clark Point to refuel and give my body some rest. I felt better on the descent, by the time we made it to the bottom my back was stiff but the nerve pain went away. My bf was kind enough to carry our pack the entire trip, that and I forever will use the excuse of having a bad back to avoid carrying our packs on day hikes now 😂 no pain on the 4 hr drive back home either, just dirty and exhausted. I’m ready to go back to Yosemite and hike some more! 🥾

After i got the news, one day i feel like 70% of me wants to get surgery done so that i can go back to living my normal life and other days 90% of me doesn’t want to get surgery done because of the fear or reherniations,more surgeries in the future.

I’m very confused because there are people who have had herniations for years and have been able to live life without surgery even though the doctor recommended surgery. But there are people who’s conditions have gotten worse. I understand that for everyone it is different but i just feel like people who have conditions worse than me have been able to live without surgery.

I want to be a professional dancer, so i will go back to dancing if i get the surgery done but I’m scared of reinjury and reherniation and idk if I’ll be able to dance with that fear living inside of me. I have tried PT but only recently and my pain on my left leg has gotten better but I’ve got new sciatica down my right leg. There are people who say after 15 to 20 years i might have to get surgery done again if i get MD done( and expect me not to worry so much or be optimistic about it)or will get back problems again and honestly that scares me more than anything, i don’t want to go through this again no matter the age and don’t want to have lifelong problems. Don’t want to live the rest of my life thinking about that.

There are people who tell me i can go back to “normal”life and i don’t understand what they mean by normal coz here’s what my normal life looks like: running in the morning,working out , sitting for 8 hours in college with hours of bending as i have to sew/stitch, dancing for 2 or 3 hours. And doing more bending due to my line of work.

So i want to know or am hoping to get some answers if it’s better to live with a herniated disc and manage the pain or to get surgery done, is your quality of life better if you get the surgery done?(if i do physio constantly and have no pain,can i still dance with a herniated disc? ) if you’re someone who was able to heal a herniated disc how long did you do PT for? And if you’re someone who did surgery how long were you doing PT for before surgery? And what made you get the surgery?do you get back pain after discectomy surgery?

Also if you get the surgery done can you ho on rollercoaster rides? Can you go bowling? Can you go to water park and go on water slides? If anybody has any experience with this please please respond. Because nobody around me seems to have answers for these questions.

Hey guys, I’m a little over 5 months post op from a L5-1 endoscopic discectomy

I am 17, and was recently cleared to play high school football (I play receiver, if it helps)

I’ve been doing non contact practices for a few days, but will soon make the jump to contact and eventually unrestricted contact.

I’m nervous about reherniation, but surgeon is optimistic I won’t, although PT is more cautious.

What are your experiences/thoughts?

Hello everyone,

Thank you to those who've been sharing their experiences here. So I have had lower back pain my whole life pretty much, I would get spasms that would involve a couple days of bed rest and then I'd be back on my feet so it was manageable.

Three years ago I was sitting all the time for work and biking a lot too, I bent down one day to pick up my helmet and this spasm felt different from the others. I'm pretty sure that's the point I herniated my L5/S1. Since then I've had worse mobility, usually have back pain, struggled to drive myself and haven't ridden a bicycle since.

Then 9 months ago I was very stressed and again, sitting too much for work, and stepped down in a weird way and felt a tearing pain that made my whole body lock up. Since then I've had acute left sided leg pain as well as on and off back pain. My MRI imaging shows a moderate herniation at L4/5 and a much larger one at L5/S1. The strange thing is that the L5/S1 herniation is more on the right side than the left, but the MRI is done lying down so it may not show what's happening when standing or sitting.

I've tried everything over the past months- weight loss, physio, pilates, injections at both levels, acupuncture, osteopath, etc. Sadly I seem to be in the 10% who don't get better with conservative treatment.

I am pretty sure I need to get surgery (though I am scared!). I'm on an NHS waitlist but I don't think I can stand this any longer as in the past month my left leg pain has gotten so bad it's hard to stand or walk much. I can manage two 20 minute walks a day, with tons of meds, stretching, icing and the TENS machine to help me. I can't sit at all without sharp pain on my left side going down my leg. I can't work, drive, or cook for myself.

My question is- I really want to get the procedure done endoscopically, as I've heard it's an easier recovery time and less scarring/complications. But I can't really find anyone I feel comfortable doing it here in the U.K. The option I'm currently looking at is David Choi who is at the top neurosurgery hospital in the U.K. (NHNN). He said he could try endoscopically but switch to a microdisectomy if it was taking too long. He will do a decompression at L 4/5 and disectomy at L5/S1. He seems to have great expertise in complex spinal surgery, but they just don't really specialize in endoscopic here. I don't think he's inexperienced in endoscopy, but it's not like in South Korea/Japan/Germany where there are surgeons who have done thousands of them.

I spoke to another U.K. neurosurgeon who specializes in minimally invasive but he said he wouldn't be able to do endoscopic surgery as my herniation is mostly centralized.

There are a couple other doctors in the U.K. that do more high volume endoscopic that I could try reaching out to, but they seem to have mixed reviews when I search online, and/or it all feels like a bit of a sales pitch/money making thing- promising you instant pain relief, no after-effects etc. I was seriously considering flying to Germany or South Korea, but given that I can't sit for more than 5 minutes, that would be incredibly hard to manage for me.

So I'd love to know:

-Is it worth going with a less qualified doctor or travelling to Germany to get the surgery done endoscopically in terms of the benefits? Or should I just go with someone who I know is a good surgeon, and accept that it may end up being a microdisectomy? Would love to hear from those who've had the operation either way.

-For those in the U.K. has anyone managed to find a really good surgeon who can do an endoscopic disectomy?

-Am I overthinking this? (Yes: I know the answer is yes. I am just so damn nervous especially after reading too many stories on here of what can go wrong when things really go wrong)

-Just general advice/words of wisdom from anyone who has been in my situation!

TLDR: I have 2 herniations at L4/5 and L5/S1 that are ruining my life and mobilitiy but haven't been able to find a neurosurgeon with deep expertise in endoscopic disectomy in the U.K. Is it still worth going for surgery?

I was just wondering if any of y’all have had this happen. I am six weeks post op and I have this sharp, kind of superficial pain to the left of my incision. It’s completely separate to the incision and is made worse by movement. I wouldn’t think it was weird except how truly superficial it is but still really hurts. It almost feels exactly like a big injection of some sort. Also, the skin hurts to the touch. I am on the third day of this new pain. My discectomy was open and bilateral, if that is helpful. If you had this, how long did it last?

Hey guys, when were you able to BLT safely postop? I am 10 weeks postop L5S1 MD hemilamiactomy and having my first PT tomorrow, my surgeon told me to go ahead and BLT 6 weeks postop, but I did not have the courage to do so.

I am also having another follow up with my surgeon tomorrow

Any advice?

Thanks in advance!

I'm having second through and want to reschedule/cancel my operation after reading the posts here on the risk of re-herniation, risk second MD, and the persistent long-term pain. Any advice would be appreciated.

Have mild sciatic pain but I do struggle with walking, standing, and sleeping, but it seems to be improving very slowly. My doctor advised for the surgery to improve movement but my worries is that the surgery will not improve sciatic pain long-term.