Discectomy done

I debated whether or not to respond to you but in the end decided I have to say that you have to stop looking for problems and concentrate on recovering. You are very lucky that you had no nerve involvement which means there is no reason for you not to make a full recovery. The chances of you reherniating your disc are very slim and sitting on a toilet would not cause this. I also cannot urinate when lying down and was up immediately after my discectomy and two hours after my fusion operation. You will feel light headed at first but you need to push on through. I have never had a back brace and the younger surgeons all seem to go for this option and the older ones still use braces. I went home 24 hours after my discectomy so hopefully they will let you home today where you can start to recover. My advice would be concentrate on your forthcoming child and try not to worry about things that might not even happen, trust me if you end up disabled you will have loads of time to think about things. I am sorry if this sounds a bit harsh but I believe that worrying about things will not help you recover and will stop you doing important things ie your exercises in case you make things worse. Trust your doctors and believe what they are telling you.

Wend x

i agree with wend after having my discectomy it felt weird having a pee due to all factors including feeling a bit weak like wend said just stay positive and you will be fine.

Hi,

Thanks. First day pain was nonexistent. Passing water and opening bowels is still a little weird but I am sure I will get there. I didn't sleep well last night, since the hospital sounds were distracting and some guy started playing the radio at 4am. This took its toll yesterday evening when sudden tiredness hot me. I also vomitted and had laxatives so I felt totally wiped out. I was glad my parebts and family were there at the time. I felt ligtheaded and thought I will collapse ans needed someone by me. For some reasons the nurses and sisters here don't seem to be too interested in that.
I was a bit shocked how little they cared. No one here seems to know what surgery I had and if there are any questions on movement etc, they loom at me as if they have no idea what I am talking about. Trust me, these guys are bad. I think they will discharge me today and I know I can get better at home. It will take some time though. I am weak and feel I need to sleep a lot. Can't feel comfortable in this hospital. It is too loud.
I hate the constant buzzing, telephone calls, radios. When you feel like throwing up or just sleeping, he external sounds can be so irritating. The doc came yesterday and so did the lhysio. I do feel lightheaded but my blood pressure and blood sugar is normal. Could it be the side effects of the drugs?
There is no csf leak, no headaches etc. I just need rest I think. I am ready to go home. If they discharge me today I will be glad.
Anyway, the physio did say to pace myself and get more active each successive day but never overdo it. He said I should anticipate when I am likely to get tired and obly walk to incorporate the time it would take me to get back and rest. By the time you feel tired you are already too late so he said I must pace myself.
It will probablycome back but after this op, my balance feels so weird. It is almost as if I am tilting left to rigt like a bobble head. It's funny. They definitely loosened up something back there. Problem is my right leg kind of elongated over the mobths since I was tilted to the left for ao long. I will have to learn to walk again.
One last thing. Please advise: any idea how long it takes before the incision pain syarts to subside? Also, any tips on healing. The physio obly showed me basic exercises.

Also, I am not afraid. I didn't even take my pain meds last night. It is not too bad anyway. When I have the meds the incision pain does not go away anyway. I will take them befoee they check the wound though and I will also need them for the journey home. After that, he co-codamol can go in the trash. Pain meds never did much for me anyway.
I can hack this. Rest, walk, rest and eat sensibly.
I am going to do my physio. I do get some nervy twinges and pain on my left butt cheek. They said this will settle. Strength movement etc is normal, but the pain coming from that area can cause a little alarm bell.
😮
As I sit here in the hospital waiting for breakfast that is likely to make me want to throw up later, I think I can now tell everyone who fears this op to not be. I am far from recovered but the pain Ibhave is wound pain. It is not even that severe. It is hard to get in and out of bed, and walking is weird but I didn't feel any pain on day one at all. A little pain yesterday and a little more today but that's because I am not fond of the side effects of the painkiller's. I think if this incision pain goes away the main hing would be to try and learn tk walk again. That is going to be a challenge. Once I got that down, I am sure the rest could be dealt with. However, these first few days are going to vary. On day one, I felt OK in some ways. Yesterday I threw up and had bowel movements that nearly left me unconscious. I felt dizzy and I just wanted to rest, which is hard if you find noise annoying. I find the sounds annoying. There is constant buzzing. Other patients, bless them, can be loud and annoying (not because they are sick because they can be inconsiderate - playin the radio at four AM, shouting when they could use the buzzer and relatives who come to visit and talk loud. I cannot sleep in a place like this, and I think peeing here is also hard. It is noisy and sometimes you just get distracted.
Hospital stay is nevessary, and if you have serious problems they will deal with it, but if you are doing OK and have people to take care of you, you may be better off at home.

Thr male nurse here is going to take the needle out of my hand. I am scared. I have two needles, one of which they used for IV fluids. Ibam scared of them taking them out. Does it hurt? They will change the wound bandage too. Will that hurt as well? Oh dear he is coming here to do it. I am so scared. At least they did the discectomy under anaeasthetic. I am scared. Help!!

He took them out. it was not too bad. Redressing that bandage would be worse though. Why can't they keep you under aneaathetic until you are fully recovered the little things are worse. The op is fine because they do that when you are asleep. After that is done, all little things hurt more. You are more aware of that stuff. I hope they let me go today, to mybwife and my family. I know they will take care of me. All I have to make is not to do anythig to aggravate my condition and let myself heal. I thibk it will take me a long time to get anywhere back to normal though. The incision pain is quite disabling and who knows how his dissipates. my surgeon said it can take time and some people have permanent pain issues in the area though this is rare. Anyone want to reassure me about the incision?

Hi,

I was discharged at around 3pm. The dressing was changed and the nurse said unless there is a discharge or blood, there should be no need for any further dressings. The wound was dry and the stitches will dissolve. When he changed the dressibg, I thought it would hurt but it did not. I was veru susrprisee. Using dissolving stitches was a great idea. They said after 10 days I shoild shower and wash normally. I was given codeine and paracetamol. The nurse said I should use them only if there is pain. I used them this morning when I was in the ward because I thought changing the dressing and taking out needles frok my hands would be painful. It was not. I have not taken any pain meds since this morning and I am proud to say I am off all of them.
I now realise he whole experience was very painless. Walking may be a bit hard for a while because I will have to rebalance myself but this surgery causes only minimal pain. My main issue is the slight bladder and bowel dysfunction but I think that would soon be sorted. Seriously, anyone fearing this surgery, there is nothing at all to worry about. I was up and about within an hour of being in the ward with zero pain. I think people avoding surgery are making a really tragic decision. I did not want to have this. I was petrified and you won't find a more squaemish person than myself. When he surgeon saw me he knew I will be much better, more active, productive and happier by having the surgery and he just couldn't see the logic behind me choosing to remain incapacitated, twisted and reclusove. Now that I have seen the results, I can see what he meant. The suffering was so momentary that I almost chose to live my whole life crippled. I feel almost 100%, and I feel within days my walking would normalise. I just have to get through these few days where the incision is healing, but trust me, this does not feel like a major thing. The night before I had my surgery, a friend of my neighbour's was leaving and I was standin outside my garden crying, and seeing off my sister who had come to wish me all the best. This lady asked what the problem was. We told her. She said her husband did not have the surgey and has lived with this problem for 21 years. Today I thibk how tragic. That guy was so scared of the op he chose twenty years of suffering. He instead went to my old chiropractor whom he obviously still sees, so even twenty years of seeing that guy would not have fixed me.
I know it is scary, but these doctors on the NHS are real pros. My surgeon, Dr Arif Khan (a brilliant spinal surgeon who has had an enormous amount of success with these operations, changed my life. This guy does about 4-5 of these ops a week and has been doing them for twenty years. They know the common problems that happen. Techniques are refined. I am already much better and it is only day 3.
I highly recommend people suffering from a prolapsed disc to have this surgery. Although the hospital was a mixed bag, I also recommend Dr Arif Khan. He was so good at what he does. When I went to Whipps Cross for the pre-op, the nurse who saw me said that people come from all over the UK to see Dr Khan. The aneasthetist told me the same thing and said if she ever had to have back surgery, she would like him to do it. Overall, I was in good hands and I trusted him. I resisted the operation and he convinced me to have it. I thank him.

I think rehab will be tough. My left side muscles shortened and the right side lengthened. It will take time to realign. The incision hurts more today and sitting is uncomforable. My balance is off.
Does anyone know when it is safe to start walking more? I had my surgery on Thursday .

Hopeisthere!!!

hi there hopehasgone, sorry i dont know your real first name!. i really hope you recover well from your operation. after reading your last few postings ive noticed a lot of questions that you have just about every bit of your stay in hospital, surely the docs will have told you about assurance with your insision,and when its safe to walk more ?. having said that maybe only you can decide in a way, obviously if youre in a lot of pain you probably need to rest, as pain eases i have walked, slowly, a little at a time, not overdoing it :), these things take time. now you have had your operation maybe you could change your username to Hopeisthere as a positive start.:), just an idea,no offence intended to your original username:)

all the best to you.

Hi,

Thanks. Will step up the walking this week when I can. Still being cautious as it has been less than a week and i do get tired easily. Thanks for your message

Hi,

Walked aroind the house for ten minutes at a time. I did it around three times. I was able to walk his much before the op anyway. It was uncofotable then due to the disc prolapse, and it is uncomfortable now because of the pain at the incision area. The pain I can handle, but the stiffness and swelling around the incision just restricts my movement. How long before that settles down? I am five days post op. Bladder and bowel functioning, I have been off pain meds since Saturday and the incision dressing is dry and clear.
Hqve been doing my physio as instructed. Three times per day and no more. I hate exercise. I am sticking to it, but it scares the heck out of me because I believe it was exercises that brought me to this horrible state. Now exercise is good, but I am a klutz and I know I can easily make a mistake. Trust me, I am that clumsy wih my co-ordination. I haven't been given any such exercises but lying on my sromach or on the floor for that matter is such a scary thig. I worry that getting up from those positions can cause me further harm and I don't really like physio or physio's. I will do ot but it scares me more than anything else. Man, I have a list of professions I hate. Chiropractors are at the top and physios make the top five too. I just hope I can recover sufficiently to just go out and buy a pint of milk, and post my letters and just walk around. I don't want to go world biking, hiking, wrestle genetically enhanced koala bears or run a marathon to raise money for an orphanage. Just walking and bein able to live independently. Is that too much too ask? Also, while I am in this mood and also bored to death in bed, I would just like to say why do so many people love to go back to the sorts of activities that cause disc or back problems? I just don't get it. I mean, I have been disabled for the last year. I cannot even go to the end of my road to post a letter without extreme discomfort. I spent almost everyday crying at home, mourning the life I had lost. Next month my wife is due to give birth to our daughter and I just want to be functional. I mean, why would anyone risk the misery of permanent disability for the sake of mountain biking or something totally inessential as running. Here are plenty of ways to stay fit. This brings me to anoher point, society's obsession with sports and exercises. If you walk and eat healthy and try to stay healthy, you shouldn't really need to exercises that much. Robert Musil, a great modernist writer (whose Man Withot Qualities is an overlooked literary materpiece), had some health problems and his doctor prescribed exercise that brought on his fatal stroke. They say he had an amused look on his face when he died because he understood the irony that exercise was ro prolong his life, yet it contributed to his death. I am saying that society in general seems way to obsessed with keeping fit and in my view the lure of sports and physical activity takes young people away from developig their brains. The ones who played football when I was at school may have been fitter then but now have crummu jobs, pot bellies and no brains. He point is leisure activities have a place, but when people make them to be something so much more important it is just sad.
Now I will let the people pass judgement on these views. I hope responses can follow the thread of logic that sports etc are not exaxtlt essential to living so why would a person wih existing back condition, who has recovered, risk it again? In the end, if you have recovered youbmay not be as lucky next time around. I can see why a professional athlete would but if you are able and have managed to avoid getting disabled due to a prolapsed disc, you should be able to find something else to do that is just as fulfilling.

Hi Daveyam,

I thank you for your positive message but I had thought about changing my username to hopehasreturned, shortly after the operation, but in my typical style, I will only make such a change when I can walk my high street without looking like Quasimodo and without diacomfort. If I can walk more than I was able to pre op then I will definitely change my name. As I said before surgery, I never had much back pain or leg pain. My main problem was antalgic scoliosis due to a large central prolapsed disc. Walking while tilted to the left caused a lot of strain on adjacent joints and muscles and that made walking difficult. When the joints and muscles fatigued I was a sitting duck. I was able to walk around in the house (I knew my limits - my chair or my bed were never far away, but it was getting very very very depressing and claustrophobic). However, I knew the op would not get me instant results because my main problem was bot pain. It was posture. P
Leaning to the left for eight months or so shortened the muscles on my left side. The muscles on the right side got stretched beyond belief, and my balance is still pretty wonky. I think the rehab will be hard. My body is still propelled to the left and this is a nuisance because as I straighten out I can feel the left side of my body (where the muscles were shortened) putting up a fight. I mean, I think thia will be a hard struggle but once the incision heals I will have a better idea of how well I am. Until then the best name is.
hopehasbeendeferred.

Hi,

An interesting challenge appears before me. My body had listed for so long, certain muscle groups have atrophied. This will take time to correct. I do not believe I have the same kind of pressure I had before because that was always apparent when I lay flat on my back. I hope it does not come back. If I try to remain optimistic, I am going to guess that my body is now trying to deal with moving in the right posture and this is straining my back. The incision point almost feels like a pivot. When I walk, the shorter muscles on my left try to pull me in that direction. However, unlike before, my body now seems to want to be at a neutral point, but at the same time, it is struggling. In the meantime, I am worried sick if any of this struggle will cause me to prolapse the damn disc again. Walking is weird. I mean, today has been one week since the op. The surgeon told me that sometimes people are left with some back pain because the removal of a disc can cause spinal instability. Until the incision heals, I cannot be sure what I will be left with. At present, my back hurts. It feels stiff and sore and getting in and out of bed is an issue, as is standing from a seated position. I hope these symptoms go away very soon. If all I am left with a is a slightly crooked posture, I will know that it will correct itself in time. I think having residual pain as a result of the operation would be quite tough to deal with. If there is anyone on these forums, please tell me more about the incision and at what point it starts to feel OK.

to hopehasbeendeferred

Hi Daveyam,

I thank you for your positive message but I had thought about changing my username to hopehasreturned, shortly after the operation, but in my typical style, I will only make such a change when I can walk my high street without looking like Quasimodo and without diacomfort. If I can walk more than I was able to pre op then I will definitely change my name. As I said before surgery, I never had much back pain or leg pain. My main problem was antalgic scoliosis due to a large central prolapsed disc. Walking while tilted to the left caused a lot of strain on adjacent joints and muscles and that made walking difficult. When the joints and muscles fatigued I was a sitting duck. I was able to walk around in the house (I knew my limits - my chair or my bed were never far away, but it was getting very very very depressing and claustrophobic). However, I knew the op would not get me instant results because my main problem was bot pain. It was posture. P
Leaning to the left for eight months or so shortened the muscles on my left side. The muscles on the right side got stretched beyond belief, and my balance is still pretty wonky. I think the rehab will be hard. My body is still propelled to the left and this is a nuisance because as I straighten out I can feel the left side of my body (where the muscles were shortened) putting up a fight. I mean, I think thia will be a hard struggle but once the incision heals I will have a better idea of how well I am. Until then the best name is.
hopehasbeendeferred.

hi there, i really hope you make a full recovery!!! blimey, you have been thru the wringer! ive been reading about your horrible time with that chiro chap, charging you £100 a week and getting nowhere, with your body tilting to one side, due to your condition , i dont think he should have laid a hand on you! no-one would touch me when they found out i had a slipped disc because they were worried they may have made me worse, my sciatic pain was horrendous, which is just as well because turned out to be a herniated disc !.that was in the late 1990s.
i know exactly what you mean in your postings, you just want your life back, same as me, your wife is expecting and you want to be back to normal, or as near as you can be. all people are different with their ailments and subsequent ops and recovery time, MOST recover:) and a few dont.:( but theres no reason why you should'nt.:). you sound as if you've had a normal life before your condition and that you are a young man. the younger you are the better chance of recovery.:).

all the best,daveyam