Sciatic pain after microdiscectomy [View all]
Someone talk me down please. Freaking out. The backstory may not be important, but I'm going to give it anyway. If you don't like long stories, you may want to skip to the end or ignore.
Have struggled with lower back pain for 9 years due to a degenerative disc. It was generally mild and manageable with PT, pilates and daily small dose of pain meds.
On 5/15, woke up with severe right leg pain, very new sensation. Started at buttock and went all the way to my toes. Assumed I herniated a disc. Tried to plow through it with hot showers, stretching, massage, all my usual techniques. It got worse. By the end of May, two weeks later, I could barely drive and couldn't bend the leg without excruciating pain. Realized it was time to hand off the ball to a professional.
The whole month of June was spent fighting with the insurance company. I alternated between not eating or eating and throwing up from pain. Dropped 20 pounds. Tripled my intake of painkillers, from 5 mg to 15-20 mg of oxycodone, just to make it through the day at work. The only position that would give relief was standing straight up, which ensured by noon the one leg was still on fire and both were worn out from standing (I get to work at 6a). Anyway, the insurance company didn't want to approve an MRI, fought me tooth and nail. My beautiful wife absolutely went to bat and ended up standing in another doctor's office, refusing to leave until they got the insurance company on the phone and made it happen. Then they didn't want to give me the result(!) until I reviewed it with their specialist, who was on vacation and would be back in two weeks. My wife staged a sit-in (stand-in?) there as well until they released the records, which I took back to my neurosurgeon for review. We went over it together.
Yes, the L5-S1 disc was badly herniated. We tried a nerve block first after fighting the insurance company for approval. It didn't work at all. Three days later I was still rolling around on the floor and clutching at my leg and crying like an infant, which of course scared the children. I still feel badly about that. I begged them to go to plan B, the microdiscectomy. Surprisingly, the insurance company breezed it right through, I still can't figure that out after they were such assholes about the MRI and nerve block.
Had the microdiscectomy the morning of the July 8th. Felt like a million bucks as I came out of surgery, but guarded my optimism as I assumed that the drugs from surgery would mask any pain. When the 9th and 10th rolled by without pain I actually cried with joy (I am a crier, it seems).
The next several days I was without pain and was a good rehab patient, mostly because I was terrified of going back to that dark place I had just emerged from. On the 15th, woke up with my leg and foot hurting again in a similar fashion but on a smaller scale. I panicked because I figured it was coming back. Logged in to some support groups for post-microdiscectomy sciatic pain and to my pleasure, almost every single person said this was normal due to scar tissue and the resultant inflammation. By the time I went to bed it felt good again so I was further encouraged.
Today, the 16th, woke up and it was hurting again. Same way, smaller scale, but more than yesterday. So I'm panicking a bit. Doc said walk as much and far as I can so I walked about a mile this morning. I think it's loosening up a little.
I'm not asking for medical advice. This post has two purposes. One, it makes me feel better to articulate my thoughts, however badly-composed and haphazard. 
Secondly, I just want to know if anyone has been through sciatic pain and the microdiscectomy procedure, and if they experienced the recurring rollercoaster of pain after the surgery.
Anyway, thank you for reading if you made it this far, and I hope everyone here is doing well. 
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