8 Weeks Post Op Microdiscectomy/Laminectomy
8 Weeks post op and while my life is incredibly different from where it was before surgery (for the better) the recovery has been SLOW.
I remember reading blogs and watching videos and seeing this sentiment across everyone recovering but I just want to re-iterate, recovery is a JOURNEY. It has good days and bad days but none of the days have been as bad as before surgery.
I’ve been documenting my symptoms and recovery weekly and am sharing my experiences through the numbers here:
Nausea and lightheadedness caused from surgery on a 10 point scale. 10 being the worst and 0 being none at all
As I explained in previous blogs, the first two weeks were awful not due to surgery pain but mostly the nausea and lightheadedness. I could barely stand for 20min without feeling like I needed to pass out. After week 4, all of those symptoms have gone away and I haven’t had any resurgence of nausea or lightheadedness since.
Tingling and numbness caused from my sciatic nerve on a 10 point scale. 10 being the worst and 0 being none at all
Week 1 after surgery, I still had a lot of pain medications in my system and my symptoms felt non existent. Slowly as I started moving more my pain meds wore off, and as my nerve started to heal, my numbness and tingling came back. Since week 3, I have not felt any numbness at all, and since week 5 I have not felt any tingling at all. Majority of my tingling was concentrated to my calf and now my calf still feels very sensitive, tight and sometimes it twitches. As I’ve spoken with my doctor, a lot of this is due to the nerve healing process as it begins to re-fill the space that it was so compressed in and should dissipate over time.
Pain caused from surgery & my herniated disc on a 10 point scale. 10 being the worst and 0 being none at all
My incision pain has honestly not been something I’ve thought much of in this recovery and if I didn’t record my pain daily, I would not have remembered my pain from it. I have no incision pain today and my scar is completely sealed. I can still feel some toughness under the scar where my stitches were and my doctor said that they take up to 4 months to dissolve.
My sciatica has been the biggest mentally tough part of recovery. Starting to feel sciatica again after surgery was very tough and caused many tears. My sciatica started getting better but in week 7 I forgot to take my gabapentin for a few days and have taken a set back in my symptoms. In addition, after my 6 week appointment, I’ve been able to sit more and bend more and notice my sciatica flares up more when I do those activities I wasn’t doing before. When I base my sciatica on certain activities, I feel I am getting better. At week 6 I remember feeling sciatica when going up and down the stairs and now it’s completely gone. I feel my sciatica now a lot more though when I go to sit after standing for long periods of time. I’ve been told that this is normal and expected as my body heals and that nerves can take even long to heal (6-12 months)
Overall, I feel my recovery has plateaued when I look at the last couple weeks. I have to refer back now a month and see how far my body as come and I’m incredibly grateful. I know I still have a long road ahead but I’m still very grateful for surgery.
