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Chronic Back Pain From Failed Back Surgery

Unfortunately alot of people have had failedback surgery or surgery on their back for other pain in their body. i.e. sciatic..etc.  However after they've had their back surgery they  end up feeling worse than prior to the procedure.  It is not rare to see spinal fusions, disc replacement, or laminectomy surgery cause new types of pain, possibly in addition to the original back pain complaint the patient had.

I am a victim of failed back surgery.  I had minimum to no back pain going into surgery for sciatica, herniated discs, degenerative disc disease and spinal stenosis.  My back pain for the past 2 years now post surgery on a scale of 1-10 is a 10+.  My quality of life has diminished significantly and there isn't anything I can do about it. 

I have tried spinal injections to relieve the pain but got minimal to no relief.  I have also tried pain relief exercises, pain management clinics and yoga.  None of those were helpful either. 

Each case is different so my advice is to get a second and third opinion before considering surgery.

Back Booster                     Yoga

Chronic Pain Symptoms and Effects

The goal to having back surgery was to increase my quality of life however this is how I was affected.

Chronic Pain can lead can and often is  debilitating.

Chronic pain usually lasts longer than six months. It can be mild or excruciating, episodic or continuous,  inconvenient or incapacitating.

With chronic pain, signals of pain remain active in the nervous system for weeks, months, or years. This can take both a physical and emotionally to a person when it’s gone on for so long.

Depression   -  due to lack of socialization, mobility, pain, weight gain, possible medication side effects and more.

Over-eating/weight gain – some self medicate with food and also gain weight because of their inability to exercise due to the pain.

Medication – if one chooses this they have many side affects, some which include weight gain and tiredness along with many more.

Motility – inability to move comfortably has decreased significantly.

Pain medications  - not always effective and many side effects

Alcoholism -  I was not affected by this but have seen people that are due to their chronic pain.

Relationships are affected – children, spouses (mates), friends

Sleep disturbances – awakening due to pain or inability to be comfortable due to pain.

Chronic pain can start with  trauma or an injury or there may be an ongoing cause of pain. Although, some have suffered chronic pain without having a  past injur

The emothions that you go through when you have chronic pain  can also  make the pain worse.

All of the following can work together to prevent your body from producing it’s own natural painkillers: anxiety, stress, depression, anger, and fatigue work together  in complex ways with chronic pain  in addition these feelings might increase the level of substances that increase  pain, causing a  cycle of pain for the person. Your body's basic defenses could be compromised: There is evidence that chronic pain can affect the immune system

Chronic Back Pain

             In the beginning I only had pain in my calves. The pain was cramping and it would often leave me with only one comfortable position. I would lay on the couch with my legs up over the back of it to try and get some relief from the pain. One leg at a time up over the back  not both at the same time.  The pain would alternate from the left to the right legs for years. This started when I was in my early 30’s and progressed until my 40’s. The reason why is as follows:

             I didn’t know what doctor to see for my leg pain so I made an appointment with  my primary care physician first.  Unfortunately, this wasn’t much help for me because I was not scheduled with the M.D.that day  but the physician’s assistant.  When this person examined me she listened to my symptoms, did a few in-office tests, i,e, reflexes, listened to my heart, took my blood pressure and watched me walk. 

              All of this led to my failed back lumbar surgery which was supposed to help my sciatica but ended up causing me to have chronic back pain.