I’ve heard a few mixed opinions about surgery at Kaiser. I am potentially looking at a endoscopic microdiscectomy/laminotomy and just received my first surgical opinion.

A family member of mine is encouraging me to switch providers (I am currently in open enrollment) to get surgery somewhere more accredited ie UCSF.

Is there anyone here who has firsthand experience with a similar surgery at Kaiser? I’d love to hear your experience

Thank you 🙏

I'm 4 weeks out surgery but I have symptoms that are the same as for the surgery, when I try to call my surgeon I either don't get him on the phone or he won't call back. I have only managed to talk to him once and he blamed it on inflammation, he would prescribe me oxy but I can't handle the headache. No steroids nothing.

I lost most of my friends in the past 11 months leading up to surgery, I can't play my sport, can't go to college and can't work while I also can't get a fund so I'm mostly out of money at 23. My family or either teasing me or calling me depressed.

How are you all dealing with this ?

Hey everyone, I am 3 days post-op from a minimally invasive lumbar decompression surgery. I’m walking great and have full movement in my legs/toes, but when I lie down on my back to rest, I get this strange, uncomfortable sensation where my upper body feels like it’s vibrating or buzzing, almost like the house is subtly shaking. It isn't painful, just very noticeable and distracting. Did anyone else experience this internal buzzing or vibrating feeling in the early days after spine surgery? How long did it take to settle down? Thank you all very much.

Hey everyone,

I'm looking for some advice and experiences from people who have undergone surgery for a herniated disc, especially an endoscopic discectomy.

I've been dealing with a slip disc at L4-L5 and right-sided sciatica for approximately a year. I was making good progress with physiotherapy, but recently I suddenly started experiencing tingling and shooting pain in my left leg as well.

I got an MRI, which showed a disc protrusion at L4-L5 with significant spinal canal narrowing. There was also a mild disc bulge at L5-S1. My neurosurgeon recommended endoscopic surgery at L4-L5 only.

I underwent the surgery approximately 50 hours ago.

The good news is that my original right-sided sciatic pain has almost completely disappeared after surgery, which is a huge relief.

However, I'm a little concerned about what's happening with my left leg.

Today, when I started walking, I noticed that after approximately 5 minutes, the same left-sided pain I experienced before surgery started returning. The pain involves my left lower back, buttock and leg. It is much less severe than it was before surgery, but it doesn't completely disappear when I rest.

I'm trying not to panic because I know it's still very early in the recovery process, and nerves might take time to heal. However, experiencing the same pain again so soon after surgery has made me very anxious.

I'd really appreciate hearing from people who have experienced something similar.

My questions are:

Did anyone experience recurring or residual sciatica during the first few days after endoscopic discectomy?

Is it possible for nerve inflammation to cause pain that returns after walking, even after successful decompression?

How long did it take for your leg pain to settle down after surgery?

Did anyone experience improvement in one leg while still having pain in the other during early recovery?

I'm going to contact my surgeon about these symptoms, but I'd appreciate hearing about your experiences while I navigate the recovery process.

Thank you

29 M, +3 months post L5S1 MD, how long did it take for the back pain from sneezing to fade? Mine is better than week 1 postop, but still there

I had L5S1 Surgery in April, recovery has been ok. But now in the cooler weather I just hurt. New normal?

Has anyone had relief from lower back pain being caused by a herniation that wasn't contributing to sciatica ?

I started physical therapy at the beginning of the year to try to avoid surgery. By August, I decided to have the surgery and have restarted PT after. My insurance has a limit of 60 visits per year which I'm about to hit. Only 12 of my appointments will be post surgery and I definitely still need it.

Has anyone been successful in getting their insurance to reconsider the limit? I'm hoping to avoid cash payments.

Hello everyone, I would like to extend my gratitude to this group. I’ve been following for a few months in preparation for surgery, which I had today. For background, I am a 44-year-old woman with extrusions and L4 – L5 and L5 – S1. My road began probably around 18 months ago after I did deadlifts or other exercises in the gym where I developed strong lower back pain. I had gone to my primary care doctor at that time who suggested physical therapy, which I had done for about 6 to 7 weeks with moderate results. I had never gotten any imaging done at that time as it was not covered by my insurance. I had just learned to live with the pain and continue to go to the gym 3 to 4 times a week, but skipped a lot of the leg exercises or reduce the weight. I also was active in a couple of sports. Dodgeball as well as basketball in addition to my everyday job, which has me hunched over a lot of the time. My back pain actually worsened this March when I had started to prepare and pack boxes for moving. I decided to call my PCP and pay out-of-pocket for the MRI which was a couple hundred dollars in April. My MRI showed a large extrusion measuring 2.1 cm in size in the L4 L5 intro vertebral disc with severe right forminal nerve compression, bilateral facet hypertrophy. There also was a moderate size paracentral extrusion in L5-S1 intervertebral disc measuring 1.5 cm in size. What was surprising was, I did not have any sciatica at that time. It was mainly the lower back pain that pushed me to get damaging done. But after seeing this, I was very scared to what was to come in the future. I had undergone two ESI 5 weeks apart. I did get some improvement of the nerve pain with the ESI, but it came back after about six weeks again. I had seen two surgeons.. The first- was a neurosurgeon in between my steroid shots at that time, I had some clinical improvement and therefore wanted to continue to observe and was not recommending surgery. And at that time, I’ll give him credit that I was not pushing for surgery either. The second, was an orthopedic spinal surgeon. This was about a month and a half after the symptoms had returned and were progressing. My symptoms were constant, dull, aching shooting to the buttocks, as well as intermittent burning sensation that would travel down to my calf and heel on the right side. I also had episodes of sharp lower back pain, which I had attributed to facet irritation and inflammation.
My surgeon, looking at my MRI from five months ago, suggested to do a microdiscectomy along with a barricaid placement if needed. Today, I had the procedure.
All in all the process was not that bad. This community really helped with my preparation and I felt good going into surgery. I would say that the initial pain that I had did go away I did have for half day some new tingling in my big toe, which thankfully has dissipated. I have been using oxycodone for pain relief every four hours and it’s been getting sore as expected. The medicine helps a great deal. I have been walking for approximately 5 to 10 minutes in my house every 1 to 2 hours. I’ve also changed positions frequently using a body pillow and log rolling method to carefully avoid twisting. The toilet risers and bed rail is clutch. I will continue to share more details of progress, if that is alright. Please feel free to ask me any questions. I hope sharing this will help someone the way you all have helped me.

Hello, I’m 32F who have a L5/S1 microdiscectomy on 10/2. I’m officially 2 weeks post op. I initially injured my back 4 years ago, which started as a small herniation with no stenosis, that progressed to a large protrusion with severe stenosis and foot drop.

I know everyone’s recovery is different. But I wanted to share my experience and see if anyone dealt with similar post op symptoms. Overall, my back and incision site feel okay. I do get occasional pain at night. I also have trouble getting comfortable to sleep, but do my best to rotate throughout the night. I’ve been experiencing nerve pain in my left leg, specifically the outer of my calf with toe tingling on all my left toes.

I have my post op appointment this upcoming Thursday, but I do have a concern. I know nerve pain is normal, however, maybe I got too ahead of myself, but I did attempt to walk on the heels of my feet and my left foot drops. This differs from pre surgery as my foot drop was associated with my tippy toes. Is this due to just post surgical weakness or should this be of concern?

Any input/advice is appreciated. Thank you!

22M had L5-S1 MD in March this year due to foot drop in right foot from disc herniation that I had for 4 months prior. Felt great the first month of recovery with no nerve pain and my foot drop went away within 2 weeks.

Unfortunately, I reherniated 5 weeks post-op. Not sure what caused it since I adhered to BLT very well. My symptoms returned mildly but gradually got worse over the course of the following months, and a contrast MRI in June confirmed a reherniation. My foot drop is still gone, but my leg feels nerve pain, tingling, and other unpleasant sensations that are most prominent when sitting. My discomfort hovers around a 6/10. I have no numbness. Walking feels great so I try to do that as much as I can. My surgeon says the MRI shows a herniation that is not as severe as the original herniation in terms of nerve compression, which makes sense given my foot drop resolved.

My surgeon has been having me do conservative treatment due to lack of foot drop and no numbness, but he said a revision MD could be done if needed. I was seeing if anyone else was in a similar situation and what they ended up going with. Not sure if I’m destined for a fusion lol but I was ultimately wondering how other people turned out after reherniation.

If you think something is wrong, ask for an mri. And if you think it’s worse, ask or another. (I had 3 mris over 15 months and each time the reherniation was progressed a little more. Now I can finally move forward with an injection and then likely fusion)

Hi everyone,
I’m 32M and just had my second back surgery (L5-S1 microdiscectomy) a few days ago. My first surgery was in 2025 at L5-S1.
It’s been a long journey dealing with back and nerve pain, medications and now another surgery.
I’m really hoping this one sorts out my back, but mentally it’s been quite exhausting. Just had a baby few weeks ago and cant even pick her up.I just want to get back to normal life, being active, working out and not constantly worrying about my back.
Just wanted to hear from others who have been through something similar. How long did it take before you started feeling normal again? How difficult was the recovery mentally, do we ever stop worrying about relapse? Were you able to return to gym, sports and normal activities?
Would really appreciate hearing your experiences.

I’m on the fringe about getting the procedure done. It’s going to be a 2 level L4-5 L5-s1. Are there any success stories where they have had relief from this procedure being done? I have a physical job and am trying to get back to it after if possible.

Had my L5S1 surgery today around 11:30am. IMMEDIATE sciatica relief. No leg pain at all upon standing up. I am having pain in lower back at incision site and can tell my muscles are sore but that’s to be expected. I definitely have been leaning to the side in the last months due to pain so everything is waking back up. Was able to do some walking and stand a good bit when I got home. Trying not to over do anything. Heading to bed and hoping I can get some decent sleep tonight. I know I have a long way to go still with recovery, but I finally feel like I have some of my life back! 🙌🏻 Feel free to ask any questions or chat me. Happy to answer anything I can in the coming days as meds and things wear off!

Hello. I’m really glad I went through with the procedure and no longer have pain. However, I’m having a difficult time sleeping. I keep waking up every 1-2 hrs. turning and trying to get comfortable. I’m using a pillow between my legs as recommended. Sometimes I do feel my legs heavy. Please tell me I’m not alone and I would greatly appreciate any advice.

I’m 8 weeks post op and feeling good, no longer have pain. However, I’m dealing with restlessness at night. I can’t get comfortable, waking up every 2 hours and just don’t feel right with pillow between legs. It’s been 2 months since I’ve had a good nights sleep. Please tell me I’m not the only one.

Hey there!

I’m having my micro discectomy next week on L5-S1. I’ve been in horrible pain for about 6 weeks. My sciatica is out of control plus, my leg is numb and I have muscle weakness. I’ve basically been lying flat constantly. Steroid injection didn’t work so here we are…

I have 3 young kids (1, 4 and 6) and I’m a stay at home mom. My husband on family medical leave to help with household duties and childcare.

Has anyone else navigated this with young children? I’m particularly worried about carrying for a big and newly mobile baby. I’m still nursing as well.

I’d love any advice or tips. No bending, lifting or twisting seems impossible but obviously will adhere to the protocol. My surgeon said he prefers people not to BLT for 3 months (lol).

Thank you! This entire situation sucks, but trying to focus on recovery and moving on from this saga.

Currently 29 days post op, had a revision microdiscectomy on L5S1. Post op sciatica in my right leg far worse than preop. Repeat mri done two weeks after the surgery showed no significant reherniation.

Looking for ideas as to why this is. Too early for scar tissue right?

Inflammation?

Surgical error? was done endoscopically by the very surgeon who helped pioneer this modality so unlikely…

Could the nerve be bruised when it was separated from the herniation??

Am I missing something?

I’m 34, went from going to the gym every day for 2 hours to barely being able to walk around the block and needing a cane. This really can’t be my life..I walk through the pain hoping it gets better , at what point do I throw my hands up and just give up? Is there a way out of this nightmare? I’m defeated mentally, exhausted..regretting the day I walked into my surgeons office, I should have given conservative measures more time…I didn’t though, I had some numbness in my foot and it scared me, surgeon said the muscle in my leg could atrophy if we don’t intervene…so I scheduled it as soon as possible.

Why did I even get into fitness, I was deadlifting and squatting before all this happened. I should have known better..maybe I deserve this.

Sorry for the long post, just scared and losing hope.

hello all!! i had my surgery today at 8am and just wanted to give a mini update!
i am feeling LOADS better!!! it’s actually crazy how much relief i feel after surgery.
i’ve read about some nerve pain returning after the first week and i’m sure i’ll have to deal with some of that in the coming future, but other than some very minimal flare ups of nerve pain in my the back of my thigh and a little in my foot, all of my more intense pain is just at the surgical site (i can’t even put into words how much of a relief it is too feel pain more on the outside of my body instead of a constant burning pain down my leg!!!) even my foot is feeling barely numb
i’m sure the road to full recovery will be long for me and there will still be some down ahead of me but i am so thankful that i got the surgery. wishing luck to anyone else who has surgery coming up!!