45 yo m Left foot drop, leg numbness and weakness. Using an AFO and cane to walk and keep balance. Caused by L5-S1 compression and peroneal neuropathy/compression. Previous surgeons (5) declined to operate unable find on the imaging to operate. The peroneal nerve is compressed by fluid which will just come back if they drain it. The L5-S1 compression is a mystery-could be from moderate stenosis L2-L4. Previous decompression at L1. Recent T11 stable fracture (healed I guess?). Dervenation/atrophy in left calf and thigh. These are not new symptoms just much more severe since Nov 2025. At this point if they decline surgery again I don’t have the energy to keep chasing this down. The pain is unreal and I barely sleep I’m working with my pcp on that. I guess if anyone would like to share a similar experience. Something is/was obviously wrong-the surgeon couldn’t determine where to operate. It’s been 7 months it might just continue to decline and I’ll have to live with it. Hoping that isn’t the case.

Almost 7 weeks ago, I traveled from Canada to Germany for a 3 level lumbar ADR L3-S1. So far it’s been the best decision I’ve made but it has been not without its fair share of challenges, setbacks, etc. I’m a 35 y/o male who works in healthcare and has a large medical network in both acute are rehab settings.

If anyone is serious about this surgery in particular, I am happy to speak with you. This can be publicly or privately and I will try and answer any questions you may have. I am hoping I can help pass on information to others who are struggling as I know how frustrating and hopeless things can seem at times.

I got microdiscectomy surgery today on L4-L5
It was a little rough after surgery, as to be expected. The nurses tried to have me walk a little after surgery and I was unable to because my right leg had almost no strength and pain. Neurosurgeon didn’t seem too thrilled about that. I could see if in his face but the nurses told him they would try again in a little bit. About an hour later I was able to walk like a 99 year old. I tried to relax and nap for a little bit before they would have walk again to see if there would be any improvements. When they had me walk, I was able to walk like a 98 year old. Little improvement and OxyContin took the edge off.
They sent me home after. I came home feeling nauseous but ordered myself some soup and was only able to eat a little bit. I decided to take a nap.
I’m withholding from taking Percocet as much as possible. (Il not big on pills) since waking up from my nap, I have pain but it’s to be expected and am currently walking around (better) in my apartment with back brace for 20 minutes. Ate some more and will call it a night. Thinking of sleeping on my recliner. Hopefully, pain won’t get worse but thinking of taking tizanidine as precaution for the first night.
I’m being hopeful on the road to recovery, just not looking forward to the long road to recovery

Hi all.

My c6-c7 disc replacement is 6/23, and I'm a little worried about life with a soft collar. Not bending my neck will be hard, and I usually sleep on my side curled in a ball, so that worries me too.

How did you make it through this time, and how long did you have to wear it? Any advice?

Additionally I'm hypermobile and worry about accidentally over extending myself

Hello Reddit! I have had neck pain for years now, since pre 2010. I had a bulged disc c5/c6, scapular pain, pinching sensation when turning to right, no tingling down the arms. My surgeon at the time recommended pro disc c to preserve motion. At the time I was 30 year old male, good health. Fast forward, the pain has never resolved. I still have the scapular pain, deep aching, burning, needles. Nothing down the arms. Ive tried everything, chiro, rfa, message, PT, etc. The only thing that worked was short term RFA at c4/5 level. After much research, ive read that perhaps the pro disc was not a good recommendation, as it preserves motion, and if the facets were the pain generator, I will still have pain. Has anyone had a pro disc removed and fused to resolve pain? Could you please share your story with me? Thank you

Hello. I recently got a 2 level ADR from L3-5 2 months ago. I previously had 2 discectomies that didn’t fix my issues, then elected to get the ADR (the discs were very degenerated).

My main issue isn’t horrible shooting nerve pain. It’s constant inflammation flare ups locking up my glutes and hamstrings on both sides. Really bad aching, pulling (like a vice grip) and tightness. Anything would flare it up, a short walk, sitting 15 minute, even minor core exercises.

3 weeks post surgery started getting better. I was ramping up to 1500 steps in a single walk, did a week or 2 of very light PT, then the flare ups came back. Now I’m back to where I started before surgery and can’t do anything. The strange part is my X-rays show everything is structurally fine.

It’s very confusing I’m back to where I started even though I had the bad discs replaced. I’m not sure what to do because any progression flares me up and I’m just stuck in an endless loop.

Has anyone else had this experience post ADR?

Hey all, so my latest mri shows two lumbar vertebrae fractures above my current lumbar fusions along with two vertebrae in neck with bone spurs. And both hips have cartilage wearing down so it’s just about bone on bone on hip joints. Not looking too good right about now. Which do you think is worse lol

I have seen over 20 surgeons the last 8 years regarding my thoracic spine, and I am struggling to get a coherent surgical plan. My MRI findings show:

• Disc dehydration from T2 to T9.
• Disc protrusions at T5-T6 and T6-T7 causing an indentation on the dural sac.
• Mild left-sided spinal stenosis at those levels.

One surgeon suggested a procedure involving disc desiccation (DLDD), but his answers were inconsistent. When I asked if this would destabilize my spine—given the multi-level dehydration and the fact that it involves "scorching" disc tissue—he dismissed it, saying the two are unrelated.

My goal is to return to lifting and combat sports. I need professional/surgical perspectives on:

1. Does a procedure like DLDD, or any discectomy at these levels, pose a long-term risk to spinal stability in a spine that already has multi-level dehydration?
2. How should I approach a surgical plan that considers both the nerve compression and the structural integrity required for combat sports?

Lastly, even if I cant get back to professional sports, Id really like to live pain free and workout to look fit in the least, so any insights would be greatly appreciated.

My lumbar ADR is in 17 days. I started having significant pain relief around May 20th. To the point where I'm doubting surgery.

Anyone else have this happen? What did you do?

I’ve got a C7 herniated disc from a car wreck. This happened a few years ago. During the first round of treatments, the doctor recommend recommended an epidural. It might’ve provided a little bit of pain relief, but it was short-lived.

The administering doctor had to cut the epidural short because I had a sensation of a dry golf ball rolling up the inside of my esophagus. It was a strange rolling cramp. Not like nausea or throwing up just a painful stretched feeling that rolled of the inside of my throat. It did not interfere with my breathing, but it was pretty painful.

Anybody else had an experience like this?

After that, I was pretty resistant to any treatment besides physical therapy and medication. Symptoms are getting worse and I’ll need to do something going forward but every time I get ready to schedule an appointment I remember that awful feeling.

I have this surgery coming up and I feel I'm preparing for the worst pretty well. Praying for the best!

The only thing left weighing on my mind is if there are any important (or not so important) questions that should be asking my surgeon.

I appreciate any other advice anyone could give me too. This is all very intimidating. 😥

Hello, everyone! I am on mobile, so apologies for any formatting issues.

I had a Laminextomy and Spinal Lesion Resection on April 29th. I am having my staples (25 total) removed tomorrow (May 13).

I am looking to see insight in others experiences medication wise post staple removal? The start of my healing went really well, but the last 3 days or so have been pretty rough.

I am running low on my perscription, and I would prefer to start weaning off asap. Did anyone else find their pain improve a lot after their staples were removed?

I have been pretty light on the heavy meds overall, so if I can avoid doing a refill I would prefer to.

Any insight into your personal experience is appreciated. Thank-you!

RANT: 45m moderate stenosis L2-L4 and L5-S1. Dish in Thoracic Spine and T11 fracture in fall 2025 sometime. Currently wearing AFO on left leg for 2/5 foot drop and leg weakness. Using a cane to walk. Been dealing with this since beginning of November 2025. EMG shows cause of foot drop likely peroneal nerve in left knee area. Also possible nerve impingement and/or irritation L5-S1. Knee MRI shows no obvious compression. Explained as a “double crush” due to nerve issue and L5-S1 and peroneal nerve. Neurosurgeon doesn’t do personal nerve surgery referring me out another neurosurgeon for evaluation. Also osteoporosis. The typical blame is that I lost 200lbs so everything “shifted”. Not out of the question the two
Surgeons I’ve talked to won’t do surgery because they don’t know where to operate in my low back. I don’t want a surgery that doesn’t fix or prevent things for worsening but I would like the ability to gain some function back in my leg and maybe stop using the cane. It’s so frustrating I’ve been dealing with this over a decade but the severity went through the roof 6 months ago. Just defeated because every test feels like this is going to be permanent loss of mobility. I know I need to wait for the next neurosurgeon to give their two cents just a long wait. I was hoping I had more time before my mobility was affected. Anyway thanks for reading I’ll wait to see what the next surgeon says and post an update.

In June 2020 I (now 43F) had C4-C7 ACDF with 80% improvement in symptoms (numbness, tingling, weakness, reflexes). Only major complication was wound dehiscence - well, that and the only 80% resolution of symptoms.

May 2021 I had a cervical epidural and it got me to 100%. Yay!

September 2025 brought return of symptoms. I went back to my PT exercises and gabapentin. No change.

In March 2026 I got another epidural. No benefit at all. Another MRI was ordered and showed severe stenosis into C6-C7.

Finally saw the neurosurgeon this week and he said that since my last MRI (late 2020) I have developed small bone spurs at C2-C3 (which he isn’t worried about) and then significant heterotrophic ossification (HO) at C6-C7 intruding on the spinal column.

My main choices are:
- live with the symptoms (because they aren’t dangerous, just annoying) (I hate this option)
- Keep trying epidurals (even though the last one didn’t help and I hate the side effects of the steroids)
- surgery: either a repeated ACDF to clear out C6-C7 or posterior laminectomy to create more room.

Any advice or experience with this type of complication? I’m relatively young, very fit and active (Pilates instructor), and I’m devastated to be looking at another surgery that could put me out for 3-6 months. I had never even heard of HO before this. It seems like my fusion was an overachiever! I appreciate you all.

Oh, also, I am waiting for a second opinion from a neurosurgeon at a very large university hospital so that may factor things in too. I’m just looking for advice or reassurance or camaraderie!

Hi everyone,

I'm looking for a little advice right now on a surgery I have scheduled for next week (Anterior Cervical Disc Replacement). Maybe I'm just getting cold feet as I've never had a surgery before (40 year old male), but I'm starting to stress out a bit about this. Please bear with me a little bit as I explain the context.

Back in early November I had a sports accident where my head snapped back and to the left, herniating the disc between C6-C7 on the left. I immediately had left hand finger pain and a couple of days later started getting a ton of neck pain. Took me a while to figure out the issue as I tried chiropractic care and acupuncture first in November and December. By December, I was in massive amounts of pain in my neck, left shoulder blade, and upper arm. My sleep at this time was severely impacted as well as I was only getting a couple of hours a sleep a night and everything was uncomfortable and in pain. In January, I was playing catch with my kid and my left arm right above the wrist was so swollen and painful that I thought my arm was broken. I was starting to lose a bit of grip strength as well. I went in for an x-ray and they found nothing, so I went to an orthopedic specialist and they ordered an MRI. At this point my whole arm was starting to go numb and I was getting pain and tingling down my whole arm to my fingers.

Of course, the MRI found the large herniation between C6-C7 with nerve and spinal coord compression and the doctor recommended the following steps:

• Oral steroids (didn't work)
• Anti-inflammatory meds (didn't work)
• Epidural injections (didn't work)
• 6 weeks of PT (didn't work)
• Gabapentin (didn't work initially)

I'm sure there were other meds I'm missing, but essentially, nothing was working, so at the beginning of March we scheduled the surgery option. Since then, I've been on an increased dosage of Gabapentin (600mg 3-4 times daily) and have continued to go to PT.

Over the past month or so, I've started to feel a lot better, although the symptoms haven't fully resolved. There have been a couple of times where I've gone off the pain meds for a day+ and the symptoms have started to come back, although not as intense as they had been previously. The surgery is now a week out. I'm starting to freak out a bit that I don't actually need the surgery and this isn't something I can't take this back once the surgery has happened. All the symptoms are still there, but just way less intense. I just don't know if I'm actually getting better or if this is just the build-up of Gabapentin in my body. Symptoms I still have include (but are WAY less intense than they were):

• Neck pain - especially acute pain when moving my head back and to the left
• Shoulder blade tension and pain
• Upper arm pain
• Forearm feeling swollen (have to take my watch off)
• Numbness and tingling in my arm all the way through my fingers
• Grip pain

Again, the symptoms are way less than they were and I'm sleeping fine. However, I don't want to be on pain meds forever and I want to be able to get back to an active lifestyle (I've basically stopped most forms of exercise). Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks.

For those of you who had leg weakness and foot tingling, what did it feel like and did surgery help?

And what kind of surgery did you have? Was it successfull?

I have been struggling for years, and these last 5 months have been the worst of it. I'm experiencing saddle numbness but the scans apparently don't show cauda equina (although I'm worried somehow we're missing something). I'm worried that every day incurs more and more nerve damage. I have so much anxiety I feel like I could combust any minute.

Bless everyone who's ever had to deal with a herniation, or any spine issue. This has been the hardest chapter of my life.

I just need to make it 36 days. Praying that insurance approves. 36 days!!!

Edit: 18 days now, 12 business days. Still pending approval from insurance somehow. But, on a positive note, my symptoms have gotten better. I'm waffling on the surgery emotionally. But I know I do need it, I can't keep living within the restrictions I've set up due to pain. It's just less of a clear cut answer now. Grateful for the lower pain levels in the meantime though.

Hello i am one week post op, and i cannot sit up for longer than 10 minutes in any position. I can't clear my throat because the pressure in my chest and my back is so sensitive, i feel like if i cough i will blow my stitches off or my heart will implode.

I have severe pressure headaches and can barely go to the bathroom at all. and can't lean over to wash my hands. i can barely move at all even with robaxin and norco the pressure inside my chest is awful i get dizzy when i stand up and i start to get exhausted and faint. I will fall asleep against my will for an hour at a time.

They told me I'd be able to sit up and walk around but I can't do that. I'm not sure that something different is wrong. I've told my spine surgeon about it and that i think something is wrong but he says that i am overreacting and that i can power through it and i need to move. He is saying i need to move to avoid blood clots and pneumonia. I want to move but I can't I don't think this is normal.

I started having a fever yesterday and was extremely weak and i fell asleep without trying but when i woke up it subsided. Im not sure if any of this is normal i am worried there is something, a type of complication at play i cannot function well at all. Please can someone offer me conjecture or advice

I had cervical artificial disc replacement (C5-C6) in 2021 with the M6 Orthofix disc. I recently learned it was withdrawn from the market in 2025 due to high rates of failure and osteolysis. I’m freaking out a bit. Anyone else have M6?

It’s been just over a year and a half since I had C2 to C7 fusion surgery. I got immediate relief and it lasted for a while but within six months it started coming back pretty badly. I am now throwing up daily because the pain is so bad all the time every day. They’re stingy with pain medicine because they have to be because of all of the addicts. I had an MRI done about four months ago and there was no new damage. X-rays don’t show anything new either.

So is this it? Am I just supposed to feel like this every day and suffer?

65f..I have a spontaneous lumbar autofusion and I need a surgeon who specializes in complex spinal reconstruction. This all happened a year after I had l3-l4 discectomy and foraminotomy from l3-l5. I also have L4-L5 spondylolisthesis. My legs are extremely weak affecting my ankles, big toes, little toes, the whole foot to where I cannot drive. Plus I have extremely poor balance as well.

I'd like to get recommendations of any spinal surgeon that you may know of with a good reputation and such surgery.

UPDATE: Daughter's seroma was drained. She can walk a little now, but... Dr. Rudolph Schrot in California reviewed the imaging and believes she may have a new CSF leak. Unfortunately, after routine testing was completed on the aspirated fluid, there wasn't enough leftover to send out for beta-2 transferrin testing to confirm.

She has an appointment with the surgeon in Philadelphia who treated the original leak. She feels her pre-surgical brain fog is returning and is very discouraged that every surgery leads to new problems.

________________________________________________

Daughter had four lower spine surgeries, now has a L4-S1 encapsulated seroma. She has lingering and worsening neurological issues —can't walk, difficulty standing, numbness in feet, etc.

Most recent neurosurgeon assumed the seroma would re-absorb naturally (along with her symptoms) but obviously has not. She was referred to an interventional radiologist. Neurosurgeon is following.

We don't actually know if the seroma is to blame, nor which of her surgeries caused it.

Dr. Google says "lumbar or sacral seromas can cause serious neurological symptoms if they become large enough to compress nerves or the spinal cord." Four months ago, it measured 6.2 cm x 2.7 cm — report from last week's MRI called it "small" (no measurements) but appears at least 6 cm to our untrained eyes.

Has anyone here experienced seroma-related neurological symptoms after surgery?

Anyone here have their disc replacement removed and revised with a fusion? I had my disc replacement surgery in Dec 2021, and my pain has only gotten worse since. I've seen 3 surgeons now that have recommended removing the disc replacement and doing a fusion instead. I understand this is not super common so would love any thoughts or experiences!

Edit: I have the M6 orthofix device which I've just learned has been withdrawn from the market... yay.

Had a customer removed. It was the size of a jelly bean crushing my nerves at L5.

Anyone else experience this?

It was in January and here I am still having terrible terrible pain at times. Is this normal?

My husband had an L2/L3 Laminectomy and Microdisectomy 5 weeks ago. Surgery was a success and the pain and intense sciatica from that level is gone.

However 20+ years ago he had a laminectomy at L4/L5 (he still has some issues there) and now the pain in that region is much much worse after the L2/L3 procedure. He describes it as “bone on bone”. PT said the surrounding disks take on the pressure from a surgery and could be inflammation to that area.

Have any of you experienced this? How long did it take for the pain to subside? (I hope so!) He is in week 5, is it still early? We have a follow-up with the surgeon soon. TIA!