r/Microdiscectomy

I’m a 42f and just had a microdiscectomy 2/24/26. After surgery my pain became much worse and a new mri was done on week 7, showing I still had a disc herniation at L4-L5. My nerve pain is a little better, but I still have a lot of weakness and am unable to extend my left leg now. My back pain is worse than before, not at the surgical site but to the left of my spine and goes into my hip/butt/thigh. My dr gave me the choice to repeat surgery, or get a steroid injection and hope it heals on its own. I suffered with back and leg pain for over 10 years before I finally bit the bullet and had my original herniation fixed. I really am terrified of going back down the same road of hoping it heals but it just gets worse. But I’m also not wanting to have another back surgery so soon after my first one. My neurosurgeon says the chance of a second reherniation would be less than 1%.

I’m also a very active person and have a career that involves very heavy lifting. I want my life back and I’m looking for some advice on how to get there.

Has anyone had two microdiscectomies less than 8-10 weeks apart?

hey everyone, would love to hear your opinions on this

I have an L5/S1 herniated disc and I’ve been waiting for surgery (recommended by my specialist) for so long that I’m not in excruciating pain anymore but I’m still limited. Can’t run or ride my bike.

Still waiting on a surgery date through public health, could be another 6+ months, nobody really knows. At this rate I might be fully recovered by the time it comes around…

What worries me though is the flare-ups. I’ve had two occasions where I thought I was back to normal, then the pain came back so hard I couldn’t sleep.

So my question is if I do fully recover, should I still go through with the surgery to avoid future complications? Or does it not make sense if my body’s already healed itself?​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

I had a microdiscectomy in December to alleviate severe leg pain caused by a ruptured disk.

4.5 months later my leg still has numbness, muscle tightness,minor sciatica and burning sensation in my butt.

The doctor who performed the surgery said that's normal and to give it some time. I asked for an MRI to see a before and after and he said no.

Not happy with my progress I got a second option and found a doctor that approved an MRI.

MRI showed a reherniation. Doctor said it either reherniated or original doctor didn't get all of the herniation.

Said my options were to live with the pain, get a shot to help with the paid have a fusion surgery to fix it for good.

Has anyone else gone through a similar journey and what did you do?

I had my first L5 S1 MD in October 24 which greatly improved my pain which was near debilitation at that time going down my left leg

But in the aftermath I got a constant neuropathy numbness in my left big toe which has been constant.

I, on the advice of my neurosurgeon (first MD was with an orthopedic surgeon) got a second MD in Sep 25.

Both my surgeries made me feel a little better I guess the first MD made me feel dramatically better but my neuropathy has not improved at all. Maybe very slightly improved.

I was curious if anyone has had the same experience post MD in terms of getting numbness in toes (neuropathy) and if they recovered?

I know it takes a while but just looking for some encouragement or positive stories.

Apologies for bad grammar and sentence formation!

I have been posting for the past 6 weeks about my medical phobia and intense fear of the surgery. I had it today! Parts were both better and worse than I had expected! Please free to ask me anything if your curious or scared about your own surgery

Had my L4/L5 microdiscectomy just over a week ago on the 13/4. Everything felt fine until a few days later when transitioning from standing to sitting became painful, as well as pretty consistent nerve pain (these are different movement patterns that hurt when compared to my pre op bulging disc).

I had a contrast MRI yesterday and my surgeon called today saying there were disc fragments on the nerve and a slight bulge. He proposed an oral round of steroids or revision surgery.

Was wondering if anyone had any similar experiences and what they opted for. Pretty devastated at the moment as it feels like I’m in the same spot, only now with surgery recovery to deal with as well.

Hey there r/Microdiscectomy, have a question for you: would you opt into surgery at this point if you were in my shoes?

About me: 34 years old, would have considered myself pretty healthy/athletic pre-injury (was playing soccer once a week and golf once a week), occasion ~2 mile run.

Got a ~10-11mm herniated disc at L5/S1 in February 2025. Have doing physical therapy fairly consistently for the last 14 months, was doing twice a week in the beginning, now go into a PT clinic once a week and will do 1-2 at home workouts a week and walk ~1-2 miles a day.

Over the last 14 months I've brought my pain levels from ~8-9/10 when I first got the herniation down to a ~1-2/10 on a daily basis. I still have daily nerve pain, just not as intense. That said it's still pretty easy for my inflame things and shoot back up to a pain level of 6 for about four weeks if I'm not careful

Any time I've tried progressing past "PT" exercises and lift weights I flare things up. Any time I try to jog/run I flare things up. I can't play sports. I can pretty much just work, walk, and do low intensity PT exercises

Pretty much, I feel like I've reached a plateau where I don't really think I'm getting any better.

Met with the top Ortho in my city and he says in my shoes he'd opt for surgery at this point. Says to just let him know if he wants to schedule me in.

Personally I'm leaning into opting for the surgery. But I guess I'm just looking for feedback from folks... when did you feel like conservative treatment wasn't getting you back to where you were before?

Didn’t expect this to be the thing that helped most post-MD, but a pregnancy pillow has been a gamechanger for me.

I can sleep on my back and side and move between them without constantly readjusting pillows. Before, that was when I’d accidentally twist or end up holding myself at a weird angle. This basically eliminated that problem and honestly eased some of my reherniation anxiety. Turns out removing those little obstacles makes a big difference.

I am a 28yo F that had MD of L5S1 on April 16th (I'm day 3 post op). My recovery so far seems to be much worse than what others have described. Going into surgery i had had ongoing terrible sciatic pain for about 8 months, not responding well to my 3 steroid injections or 6months of PT. I was very eager to get the surgery done. But I feel I've been doing poorly so far in recovery, especially since I'm fit and was very active before

Day 0: surgery at noon, only took about an hour. I barely remember the day other than extreme pain. I needed multiple types of IV opioids and muscle relaxers. I had to be admitted since I couldn't really get myself up.

Day 1: they wanted to discharge me in the morning but I wasn't able to void (urinary retention). I needed multiple catheters throughout the day and developed a yeast infection. Pain was just as bad in the morning but by the evening I was able to walk a little with a walker (~100steps) and pee again. Pain went down and I could stop iV opioids. The opioids in general make me extremely groggy, itchy, and dizzy but my pain is either a 3/10 when ive settled into a position or 8/10 when I have to move.

Day 2: I made it home and fell asleep a lot. Slept 12h at night and needed a nap after every walk. Each walk is about 300 steps and i managed about 5 of them. Still need a walker and my pain is around a 6 while walking. Few twinges of the nerve, but almost all my pain has been incisional and from the muscles seizing around it. I skipped 2 of my opioids (one a night, one midday) otherwise taking them every 4h. My appetite is very supressed and I struggle to eat even 1200calories

Day 3: very similar to day 2. Trying to walk a little longer and we are experimenting with reducing opioids by cutting them in half rather than skipping doses. Its making the side effects less problematic. Still having a hard time eating.

My husband and mom are the ones helping me and they keep trying to encourage me to skip opioids and do more walking, eat more, be more independent. They make me nervous that I'm sleeping too much because I feel like I still need 30minute naps every few hours. My brain fog is still really there and I have a lot more pain than I expected. Are they being reasonable in expecting that I should be trying to sit to eat meals if lying down is more comfortable? Should I still be needing them to make my meals and help me up?

I feel like I was sold that the pain would be minor and I'd be back to myself by the end of the 2nd week. I feel like a zombie that struggled with basic tasks

L5 S1. I’ve had sciatica for 3 years. I woke up from surgery able to walk which felt unreal. The surgery was the best decision I’ve ever made

I’m so sorry for posting and talking about this again. It’s been all I can think about for the last week and a half.

21 m 17.5 weeks po this all started when I lifted a kid off the ground, kid was ab 40 ish pounds. I didn’t feel anything down the leg after I did and thankfully I still haven’t. I’ve just had very noisy nerves, foot throbbing duller sensation tight calf, tight glute, weird sensations in the toes and behind the knees, I am scared that this is getting progressively worse and this is just the beginning of a hell hole of pain and sciatica

I’m not sure what to do this is all I can think about. I cant study, I can’t sleep bc I keep thinking ab it, the first thing I do in the morning is do a straight leg raise, see if I’m having foot drop, walk around see if anything is shooting.

I’m so worried and I don’t wanna keep bothering my surgeon and my loved ones bc I can feel them being sick of me.

I’m 6WPO in a few days. My surgeon follow up is in a couple days so I’m sure he’ll give me some indication of what’s to come too, but how did you approach the “official” lifting of restrictions?

I’ve never been pain free over these last 6 weeks, always some nerve discomfort but it’s definitely reduced in severity and my overall function has increased. But I’m still not in the “feeling so good I need to remind myself not to do too much” - my body has had pretty clear signals whenever I’ve pushed too far.

Which leads me to my Q: I know the 6 week mark isn’t a magical free for all for anyone, but particularly for any of you who have experienced ongoing nerve or muscular pain, how did you approach 6W onwards?

Hi all! Occasionally I get an email from someone looking for a specific recovery story for the podcast. If you needed a second surgery because of reherniation (either right away or years later) and have recovered well, could you let me know if you are willing to come onto the podcast to share your story? Thanks so much!

I have a medical phobia. Nightmares for months after my MRI, a depressive episode after my transvaginal ultrasound. I’ve been having horrific nightmares for weeks and feel like I’m going to vomit (which I very well might beforehand, as I have at the hospital before when there for someone else). I experienced sexual assault a few years ago with someone I was close to and trusted, and this is definitely bringing that back up for me. The idea of being naked with them, makes me feel sick as well, even though I know it has to happen.

I’ve tried reframing, breathing, all my therapy techniques, but now that I’m 28 hours out, I’m no longer in control. Any tips to just get through this as least awfully as possible? And any tips to prevent a depressive or trauma episode after?

Hi, i am one and a half days post op. I was advised to make an appointment at my GP for the 28th April for a wound check. A nurse has just called from the hospital asking if I've checked my wound and it was only after hanging up, i thought about the wound dressed. Are u supposed to remove and redress yourself or await the GP appointment? Thanks in advance for any info. Also please add any help/advice which has aided recovery. I had a bilateral L4/5, doped up on painkillers at the moment and trying to reposition and move around intermittently.

Best of luck to you all!

Sounds like a silly question, but is it if you physically reherniated or if you have symptoms or both? Is that always the first protocol or no?

I woke up from an L5/S1 MD on april 11 with zero pain, feeling amazing. Been walking a lot. Just feeling so happy to be not in pain.

Went of dilaudid on day 4. And halved my tylenol and advil on day 6.

I walked a lot and got in and out of the car 8 times yesterday.

In the evening I felt just tired in my body and my back felt tight. Took a warm shower and went to bed.

Slept on my left side for the first time and I have no idea what time it was that I woke up. I felt my body doing a stretch and rolled on my back to try and stop it. Felt a pop near or by my surgery site while my back stretched. Got scared but went back to sleep on my back and then woke up at 6 am with horrible cramping and burning in my leg. Its like a water surface- Just non stop all over. It hurts so bad.

I took dilaudid, tylenol and advil and put ice on my back. About an hour later it calmed down.

Feeling better now but can feel my back playing up again after 3 hours. Dilauded is only 4 hours so yeah.

Do you think I reherniated? I am absolutely panicking here. PTSD. It took months to get this MD in this shitty Canadian system. Im just so lost right now.

I am 11 days postop. The first few days were amazing - the incision hurt, but it was totally manageable, and the sciatica was gone. On day 3 the pain came back suddenly, worse than before the surgery. Then, 4 days ago I was in the car for 15 minutes and felt a sudden excruciating pain and had to immediately pull over. I couldn’t sit up at all and had to have someone come get me.

Now I am in 8/10 pain, worse than before, and it spreading into my right side (it was never there before). My leg is almost completely numb, and I can barely move my foot. My surgeon told me to go to the ER, so I’m in the waiting room now.

How did you know it was reherniation and not just postop nerve pain?

How long after it was confirmed did you have to wait for a second d surgery (if you had one)?

What did you do differently the second time to keep this from happening again?

I’d really just like to hear other people’s experiences. Even from people who were convinced they had reherniated and ended up being wrong.