It didn't re-herniate!

Okay, phew. Yall, we are in the clear!

We had a big scare and we thought my husband re-herniated his disc, but here to say that the PA was wrong and its actually not a re-herniation! You have no idea how fucking grateful I am right now or maybe you do know.

While a re-herniation is not the end of the world, it would have been a complication.

So what happened?

Turns out that my husband's first herniation 5-6 years ago calcified so much that it was impossible to take out during the surgery. The surgeon had told us this, but we didn't realize what it meant. He did fix the newest herniation (10 months ago) and that one didn't re-herniate. The MRI was showing the calcified stuff.

Which means good and bad news.

Good news, he doesn't need a second surgery and he thinks most of the sciatica left is coming from that. He also thinks his hip and S1 joint are so beat up that its also contributing to sciatic pain.

Bad news, there really isn't much to do other than water exercises and shots on the S1 joint to see if it helps.

The pain he has left after the surgery is still way less. My husband guesses that its 70% better than before the surgery. And while its not 100%, its pain that its manageable and he can work, walk, and do things that were impossible prior to the microdisectomy. We are still off of opiods and only on ibuprofen so, yep staying grateful.

We are looking into stem cell injections for the S1 joint. We'll see.

Anyway, I wanted to update you all because I'm fucking excited and to let you know that the we still think the surgery is worth it.

Only advice is to not be like my husband and wait so long that the disc calcifies. Apparently a big no-no lol

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Past posts:

Day of OP:https://www.reddit.com/r/Sciatica/comments/arsvuy/night_before_the_microdisectomy/

2 days post op: https://www.reddit.com/r/Sciatica/comments/aszc9x/microdisectomy_2_days_post_op/

1 week post op: https://www.reddit.com/r/Sciatica/comments/auvkck/microdisectomy_one_week_post_op/

2 weeks post op: https://www.reddit.com/r/Sciatica/comments/axmwe2/microdisectomy_two_weeks_post_op/

2 month re-herniation scare: https://www.reddit.com/r/Sciatica/comments/bjkqyn/microdisectomy_the_dreaded_reherniation_update/