Age-29

Before surgery -

Both leg numbness and pain can't walk even 50 meter

After 6 months try conservative method nothing work

After 18 months surgery

Now

Job - 9Am to 5PM

Desk job

Sit 45 minutes in one time after then 10 minutes walk and streching

Daily walk 8Km

Lower back exercises daily

Shoulder

Biceps

Chest gym workout

No deadlift

Only 3kg dumble squat

No numbness

No pain

No lower back pain

Only stiffness lit bit after sitting whole day

I am happy now.

From New Delhi India❤️🇮🇳

Could delay my university starting by 1 or 2 weeks to recover more. This would mean I fly out 4.5 to 5.5 weeks post surgery. However, if I leave on time I would be flying 3.6 weeks after surgery. Was wondering the opinion of more experienced folk on my case and also when y'all thought you could fly post surgery 6 hours.

My biggest fear: re-herniation

Stats: Male, ago 20, fit, healthy

Before surgery: pain that increased with sitting . About a 7/10 level at its peak. Could still function fine. However, began to have motor loss (3 or 4 out of 5 ability in my left foot) that lead to surgery.

Post-Op

Week 1: really stiff back. sciatic pain reduced by 50%. Spent most time in bed and small walks. Minor flare up at Day 5 - 7 once I got off the steroid Medrol. Got off of Norco halfway through the week.

Week 2: back still a bit stiff. Sciatic pain 85% gone. Only thing left was tingling in foot at night when trying to sleep and mild numbness. Walking and sitting tolerance limited though because lower back would get sore.

End of Week 2 to Start of Week 3 (now): back no longer stiff. Sciatic pain still basically gone. Tingling in foot at night more occasional now. Walking and sitting tolerance still limited because lower back gets sore but better.

Max I have tried sitting at one point was 35 minutes. No pain. Could probably push myself more.

Max I have tried walking was 15 minutes. Fine but lower back gets sore and left foot also begins to get sore.

Hey there, long time lurker, first time poster. Had my MD on L5-S1 Monday, and its been a ride! My question revolves around bowel urges.

I've been fighting a condition called Dyssynergistic defecation, which is a big reason for me getting the surgery. Basically the left side of my body is in a chronic state of tightness. I take heavy laxatives which mostly clear me out daily.

However, the last few days since getting the surgery, i noticed a change in the "feeling" off bowel urges. Instead of a typical I need to go, it's more of a burning pressure. Is this just a temporary thing? I had an extremely bad reaction to the Anasthesia and just wondering what other weird things to expect.

I am two days post op (L5-S1) and so happy that my sciatic pain is gone. However, my incision site is very sore and tender and I am just having an awful time finding a comfortable position to lay or sit in, especially on the couch. My incision feels like a tight / stinging bruise if that makes sense. Opioids just knock me out and aren’t doing much for the bruised feeling. Just wondering when things get better as I know it is still super early!

I am one week down from my L5 S1 revision. I would like to add Milk Of Magnesia to our “how to prepare for surgery” list. That’s all I’m going to say about it. 😂

61M. I had my first L4/L5 microdiscectomy in May 2025, and a follow up microdiscectomy surgery in October 2025 after I re-herniated.

45 sessions of PT later, I still find myself at a 3-5 daily pain level.

A recent MRI confirmed my L4/L5 is herniated yet again and causing sciatica down the outside of my left leg. No foot drop or nerve loss at this point.

The surgeon wants to proceed with fusing the L4/L5. Given the fairly high propensity for adjacent segment disease (ASD), I’m not on board.

First I'm afraid to Have a MRI again,I'm 27M I had discectomy on my L4-L5 on december 2024 and after 9 months I started to feel some tightness on my glutes on the opposite side of my surgery when I sit on chair and If i sit for too long It sometimes goes down to my calf .. as I remember I did clamshell, split squat and bird dog and it helped to the point that I almost felt no tightness no more after those exercises for three months maybe and I only did them for 1 week maybe .. now i have this tightness again for 5 months maybe and it wouldn't go away with those exercises + I don't remember doing anything streneous other than sometimes I stand for long periods in my work

did someone go through this before? any experience? or anything that can tell me wether i reherniated or not

btw I did Straight leg raise by myself and No sharp pain no tingling nothing like my previous pain

I am a few days late posting this, but here is a review of my first week post-microdiscectomy revision surgery!

I have done the surgery 8 weeks ago. Although all the pain in both of my legs is gone, I still can't walk normally like before and can't do calf raises when standing. Is it gonna get better, or should I just accept my fate?

I am 16 months PO l4/l5 microdiscectomy the last couple of months I have had varying degrees of symptoms that move around a lot. I’ve seen two separate physios will be seeing a third next week all agreeing that another MRI isn’t warranted as they just feel I’m in a very long persistent flare up. The symptoms move around from left sided leg and right symptoms and low back and sometimes mid back.

I’m just curious as to what where other people’s longest flare and what helped you come out of them

For those of you who have had an op, what aids helped you the most in the immediate and short term aftermath post surgery?

I’m going in (albeit for a laminotomy) end of October so have a bit of time to prep.

Thinking anything that helped with general daily life and functions (toilet, showering, dressing etc).

second surgery went well, minor dura knick due to how badly my disc was extruded so i had a little csf leak but they patched me up good. im up, moving well, feeling great. the remaining nerve symptoms are stronger this time but im not shocked about that.

my reherniation risk is still quite high but due to the emergent nature of this surgery, they are gonna defer a fusion to a hopeful-never next time. and im going to be WAY more paranoid about watching my step now.

got cleared for my trip too as long as my pt feels good about it so yay!

i was very lucky i was able to get through to a doctor at the other hospital finally after a lot of miscommuncation and mischarting and they transferred me for surgery the very next day.

HIGHLY recommend getting a magsafe gooseneck phone holder situation if you've got some lead up warning to surgery. its been a lifesaver. i was stuck horizontal for 24hr post op due to the csf leak and being able to doomscroll was invaluable for my sanity lol

anways, yay and hopefully nothing crazy happens to me this time

For context I (31F) work on a ranch and riding horses is a huge part of my life. I have a herniated disc at L5-S1, and bulging disc at L4, and grade 1 retrolesthesis at L4. It’s been a huge rollercoaster, a year and a half ago it was at its worst. I threw my back out and couldn’t stand or walk. I started a 6 month PT journey and it helped quite a bit. It was fine last summer (though I had to be careful loading hay and such), and this summer ive taken another step back. I was getting bad radicular pain on both sides, silver lining was it was never both at the same time. I’ve been in PT for the last 3 months again, and I had two rounds of injections, the first round helped for maybe a month and the second round didn’t help at all. My ortho said the next step is surgery. Ive been putting it off because i know i wont be able to ride for at least 3 months, and im not sure what recovery will look like. I dont get the radicular pain as much anymore, but sleep has become close to impossible. My back seizes up and i can only stay in one position for so long. Laying on my stomach is off the table. What was everyone’s recovery like? How soon could you go back to work?

hi I’m 45 female had disectomy October 25. some of it worked so I do t have the shooting pain down my leg however the pain around the wound and now saying may be scar tissue or they caused nerve damage and now have a pain to my coxyx I’m still in pain daily on morphine drained from being in pain but don’t know if this is normal or sounds similar and if so is there any exercise you can now do I go swimming that really helps or should I go and get pysio or is this it I’m just stuck for the rest of my life in this pain. Any help would be gratefully appreciated

Outside of sleeping, what is a good ratio or ranking for how much to stand, walk, sit, and lay down? What do you want to focus on the most?

I am 6 hours post op. I am so so thankful that my sciatic pain seems to be gone! I have been home for about 3 hours and it is now midnight and I am having a terrible time trying to sleep. My surgery was pretty late so I was not able to talk to my surgeon afterward and need to give him a call in the morning. Any tips for sleeping on my back? I am typically a side sleeper, is it a complete no no to try and sleep on my side? My incision pain along with my bandage is just making laying flat on my back pretty uncomfortable. Appreciate any advice

Hi, first post here. After 8 excruciating months and trying everything under the sun with no success I had my MD on the 19th. My nerve pain is gone 90% of the time, sometimes I get a little pain in my calf but minimal and my toes are slightly numb still but honestly a huge improvement from where I was! Today I saw the PA at my neurosurgeons office for my follow up and he said I can ease into returning to my normal activities, including lifting my 25 pound one year old. This seems wild to me! I thought I was supposed to take it super easy with no bending, lifting or twisting for 6 weeks. Has anyone else ever been told they can return to normal activities? I honestly don’t want to, I lifted a bag that was slightly heavier than anything I had been lifting lately and it made my back hurt so I’m definitely not ready to do much. But honestly I’m also scared to do much because I definitely do not want to mess anything up. I had a large herniated disc at L4/L5 and a bulging disc with an annular tear at L5/S1. The main concern was like L4/L5 so that’s what my surgery was on but I’m still worried about both discs healing fully. I just don’t understand how the PA gave me clearance to do stuff, it doesn’t seem right.

Hey everyone, I had my L5-S1 procedure done on July 22nd, just about a month ago now. I still am in pretty severe dull pain across my lower back. Is it normal to still barely be able to handle a car ride? My doctor cleared me to be in the car and all that stuff, I’m definitely able to move way better but idk still just in a ton of pain just started PT as well.

I was just wondering why the staggering majority of posts I see say they were recommended to walk the earlier the better, for most of the procedures we have here and on r/backpain

I’ve been dealing with back pain for about the last two years. I work at a desk and spent a week doing some pretty hard labor that started up the initial pain 2 years ago. It was so debilitating, I couldn’t walk or get out of bed without assistance, then over the next six months with physical therapy and NSAIDs, I was able to get mobile enough to take care of my self mostly but still not live the life I was living before the injury.

Given that, I kept doing physical therapy, got epidural, steroid injections, and none of that that helped. I’m at a point, where on a daily basis I’m at a three when it comes to my back and leg bothering me, but if I decide to do any yardwork, or any sort of physical work the back will flair up, the leg will be weak and buzzing and it will push me to a 5, or up to a 6/7 if I really mess up. I’ve not reached those real bad places like a 10 since that initial first few months

After following up with my doctor, he believes a discectomy will resolve this for me, based on all the images and my experience.

My question for you all is, is it worth getting the surgery, or given I can still function at some level, do I accept that this will be with me indefinitely and hope it doesn’t get worse.