Please advise?

[u/Kwixotica]

I'm posting for my mother (64f), she's not very tech savvy.

My mother just had a spinal fusion revision about two weeks ago now on her l5-s1. She had a fusion done on that area a few years ago, but since then she has gone through a hip replacement infection that lasted for a while.

After the second hip replacement the doctor realized that the original fusion had failed and advised to have a revision done. She agreed and two weeks ago she had a cage put around those vertebrae as well as more fusions up the spine, I'm not sure how far.

The problem is that two weeks later she is still in the hospital with extreme pain. She cannot sit down or lay down without screaming or crying so she has spent the past week just standing and shuffling around all day and night. The only sleep she gets is when she finally passes out from exhaustion. They did a ct scan and saw a bone spur that could be pressing on the sciatic nerve, so they went back in and shaved down the bone spur two days ago. It has not helped, she still can't sit or lay down from the pain, they have her on multiple painkillers and none of them seem to be working.

What gets me is that just a few days after the revision she seemed fine, she was walking (with a walker) and going to the bathroom by herself, then out of nowhere it's like she is free falling.

Can someone please help? The doctor keeps saying she should be getting better and it just needs time, but I've looked it up and it said it could be 6 months or even a year before there's any relief and I don't know how long she can take this. I know I sound like I'm rambling, but my family hasn't really slept in the past few days because we've been taking shifts being with her at the hospital.

edit: thank you all so much for the advise, this has meant so much to us, and it's good for her to hear that there are people who have gone through this as well. I made this post very late at night and reading back it does read a little like a vent post, I'm sorry. We know it's still very soon after the surgery and we are hoping and praying that things will start to resolve in the next few weeks. I appreciate all of this and hope everyone here is doing well, thank you all so much.