Legs numb, but burning 5 Mo. post op

[guymontag]

I too suffer from burning legs at times. I'm about 11 months post microdiscectomy op. I only got this neuropathy in March this year after a 10 minutes on an eliptical trainer. MRI both before and after shows the disc more dehydrated (black disc).

The burns have tapered off, from severe initially to just mild and usually if I've been standing too long or moving too long. My legs also get cold spots. feeling of ants in my legs or grit under my skin as well as the usual water running down legs feeling and feeling wet. It was actually creeping up to my arms at one stage. I'm on neurotin 1800mg a day and I think it helps. I've been purposely skipping doses to see if I can wean myself off it.

Is your numbness significant? does it change during the day?

How do the burns/ numbness present themselves in respect to dermatomes? e.g. just down the back of your legs l5/s1 or all over?

Do you get anything other than burns? symptoms like I've mentioned above?

do the burns happen after activity?


Hows your sleep ?
can you sleep well at night?
Does sleeping on your side if possible rather than your back help? (its helped me - i don't know why)

I'm also on Amitriptyline (anti depressant). Its good as well as keeping my mind in check it also knocks me out at night. I find that good sleep is essential to getting better from this horrible neuropathy that has developed inside me.

I have a theory about this. I think when your disc blows out, either herniated or tear, a whole bunch of chemicals inside the disc escape and can really burn the nerves. My initial burn in march this year really made me suffer. It burnt all night and even when I thought I was ok a week later, any movement wold really flare it up. e.g. 30 minute walk etc. it has slowly gotten better, but I actually think my nerves aren't the same as before or at least they are a lot more sensitised to the now leaky disc. Obviously in your case you don't have the disc any more but perhaps when excising the disc space the chemical irritant bathed the nerves during the operation? I know it sounds far fetch. but it may correlate to what Mark has said about Dr Yeung mentioning a fatty covering over one persons nerve and an almost pink non fatty nerve....


hope you get some sort of pain resolution