Healing from a failed back surgery

Hi everyone,

I am just looking for some advice/support with trying to heal after having back surgery. Here is my story:

I was 19 when I experienced back pain. I had never experienced back pain before then all of a sudden when running ( btw I was a huge runner and would run up to 7 miles a day) , my back "went out" and had shooting pain all the way down to my leg. Immediately, the right side of my foot was numb to sensation. The first day, I was in a lot of pain and stayed in bed the rest of the day. Other than that, I was never bed ridden. I was in pain, but could do all my normal activities besides working out. I was able to drive, sit for long periods, go to work 40 hours a week, hang out with friends and family, etc. However, after a month of the pain down the backside of my life and numbness in foot, I got an MRI and it showed two herniated discs L4-L5 and L5-S1 with compression of S1 nerve root. My symptoms were always consistent and matched exactly with what the MRI showed. My dad works on an orthopedic floor in a hospital and has a good friend who is an orthopedic surgeon. so he went around got 3 different opinions and all agreed surgery was the move. So I went through with it and I had an amazing recovery. I was walking 2 days after with ZERO pain and within a week I was walking miles and miles and shortly after I was back in the gym. The only thing that stuck around post-surgery was the numbness on the side of my foot. For the past three years, I have been absolutely pain free until about three months ago. I started a new job as a medical assistant in a soft tissue and chiropractic office and everyday I see people in chronic pain. So of course, after two months working there, I started to develop pain on the left side of my lower back. I IMMEDIATELY panicked because this would be only the second time I experienced back pain and the first time I experienced it I had surgery. So I was stressed out of mind and was afraid I was going to be like the patients who come into the office and are in so much pain OR I would need another surgery. After a few weeks of mild back pain, I was waiting and waiting for the sciatica occur because again, I never experienced back pain before without leg pain. So a few weeks later, it of course came.

My boyfriend gave my John Sarno's book before I went into surgery and I totally disregarded it as I couldn't believe any of it was true. I had real pain and real numbness and thought he was telling me it was all in my head. Thankfully this time around, he encouraged me to give it another try. I was WAY more open and decided to dive myself into the TMS healing. I read all of Sarno's books and began the SEP. After 2 months of on and off pain, everything has moved from my left leg to the right leg (OG symptom leg pre-surgery).

I have every reason to think this is TMS as the pain constantly moves and is sometimes there, sometimes not. However, I am struggling with believing that I can heal since I now have real structural abnormalities in my back from the surgery.

If anyone has any advice on how to heal despite having a surgery, I would very much so appreciate it.

Thanks for listening to my story!

 

I've had stomach surgery twice but if I get a tummy ache I don't think immediately - 'its the surgery damage'....
You seem to have the answers within your post - your pain has changed sides... you thought you would get pain - and you did... you did the SEP and it worked....
Read between your own lines and find your own 'psychological' factors - then get back on the SEP!!
You know it works - be kind to yourself....!

 

Hi @alexsmits,

I too had a hard job believing that my back pain (and other pains and symptoms) are TMS, despite the evidence that most of my symptoms play 'whack-a-mole' and move around my body. Dr Sarno talked of mild oxygen deprivation causing TMS pain and other symptoms, which I found hard to comprehend/believe at first because my pain can often be excruciating - even though Sarno did say that TMS pain can be extremely intense and very painful...So, it wasn't until I read Dr James Alexander's book 'The Hidden Psychology of Pain' https://www.amazon.co.uk/Hidden-Psychology-Pain-Understanding-Chronic/dp/1452506809 that I really started to believe that in TMS the brain causes lack of oxygen by reducing blood flow to the muscles, tendons and nerves to create symptoms, as Dr Alexander gives one of the best explanations in his book that I've read about it (backed up by some research evidence) plus he says that the reduced oxygen supply to the muscles can also sometimes result in tiny - or sometimes big - muscle tears, which can make the symptoms worse.

I haven't had back surgery myself, but what I would suggest is that you considering reading back surgeon Dr David Hanscom's book entitled 'Back in Control: A Surgeon’s Roadmap Out of Chronic Pain' https://www.amazon.com/Back-Control...8-1&keywords=back+in+control+by+david+hanscom. The description of the book on the amazon website is self-explanatary...and here's a link to Dr Hanscom's website http://www.backincontrol.com (Home).

I hope that this might be of some help to you.

All good wishes - and a warm welcome to the forum.

BloodMoon

 

I began my REAL recovery after a 'failed' surgery. In fact I was scheduled for an experimental new surgical thang-a-ma-bob when I had finally had enough of the 'Medieval Medical Mythology' and grabbed a copy of "Healing Back Pain'... I still have all of the anomalies that conventional medicine would consider problems, e.g. stenosis, degeneration, hips out of alignment blah,blah,blah. In fact, a couple of years ago during an x-ray for something else They found a self-healed Broken Vertebrae in my back. It must have happened during one of my numerous falls (I had fallen off a 28' ladder at work in 2013)...skateboarding, being in the pit at punk rock shows, falling off my bike,etc.

Regardless... I am 100 per cent pain free through Sarno's work and have been since '99.

""""I started a new job as a medical assistant in a soft tissue and chiropractic office" "I was waiting and waiting for the sciatica occur because again, I never experienced back pain before without leg pain. So a few weeks later, it of course came. """""

As part of my self designed recovery program based on the Three R's of Sarno, I studiously avoid ALL 'explanations' from the Medical Medieval 'SYstem'. You working around the 'system' and listening to that BS about discs and compression and structural crap all day long may seriously hamper your recovery, if not prevent it altogether. It would be like trying to recover from Drug addiction working in a pharmacy

All of my friends who subscribe to the SYSTEM all believe it firmly...and ALL of them are in constant or recurring pain. Its as simple as garbage in-garbage out.

My Good Friend at work knows soooo much about the structural composition of the human spine.... just had his 'successful' back surgery after limping around for a few years....except... now His knees are killing him and he misses work time for his Knees rather than his back...for now.
Oh yeah... he also listens to political talk radio all day long and is the angriest, most cynical person I know. Coincidence?

Having been cured of this for two decades and working around Men in Construction and Sports I have compiled an opinion based on paying attention to Nuances and subtleties... very unscientific and truer than a heart attack; Not only are most (99%) pain syndromes of the TMS variety, REAL damage to Pain causation is extraordinarily rare. My friend I spoke of is the rule, not the exception. I get into my friends' and acquaintances lives... I ask a lot of questions... i poke around. I am a busy body albeit a sly and subtle one

EVERY time one of my cohorts has a pain issue, invariably I find they are In a bad marriage, Alienated and Lonely, caring for a sick child or parent, a Political Fan (either side, doesn't matter) a Do-gooder and extraordinarily conscientious. EVERY TIME

 

Hear hear!!!!!!

 

Look at what's going on in your life and how you feel about it - and don't think about the surgery. If the surgery failed you would not have been pain free for such a long time. That doesn't mean that you should have surgery again. Not at all. If you had been pain free without surgery you don't know and will never know.

 

Thanks to everyone who responded. I very much so appreciate it.