Because of a ruptured disk that fragmented into my spinal canal, I had to have a fusion at L5/S1. I am in the hospital right now. Have my laptop with me in bed to pass the time.I am wondering. The last week, I had numbness set into my left foot, left hamstring, left glute, and my scrotum. It happened very quickly and was very scary.I am almost 24 hours out of surgery. Does anyone have this experience and know if any of this numbness will go away? Will I regain strength in my leg?Fortunately, I feel very well. No pain so to speak, except for the surgical pain. I am able to get up and around a little bit.Please no horror stories, this is hard enough. I just am curious about the numbness.Thank you.
Answer:
I have had everything you described except I was able to get by with a microdisectomy of the L-5/S-1 instead of fusion. However, the nerve damage you described is common. It will take up to a year to get back what you may or may not get back.I got my leg strength back within 6 weeks by building up from walking.It has been 4 years and everything is ok but I do have numbness/tingling from about mid calf to my toes on the left foot and only on the left side. And, my sciatic nerve acts up with prolonged sitting.Considering my pain was a 12 on a scale of 1-10 I'm happy with the results.I know alot of people who had the fusion. It is a longer recoup time but if done right you will be pleased with the long term results. I know in the future I will have to have it done also and I'm not looking forward to go through all that again. I wish I opted to have the fusion done upfront but I had a very conservative Neurologist and I just wanted the pain to stop (it was workers comp and it took 17 days to get the surgery approved).Please feel free to see my profile and e-mail me if you have any specific questions.GOOD LUCK!
I'm assuming that the numbness occurred before the surgery, if it happened after surgery it could be anesthetic or nerve damage that occurred in surgery, but if it stated before surgery then it could be possibly a pinched nerve or something else neurological. I would bring it up to your surgeon. Good luck! I know how spine surgery is...I've had 4 in the past year and a half (to implant a Spinal Cord Stimulator so it's fairly different, but still spine surgery).
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