My symptoms after detethering

October 29, 2006

Hi,

I had surgery to cut my tight filum Sept. 12th. Dr. Milhorat and Dr. B operated

on four levels, and Dr. Milhorat said I had " The Real McCoy " (i.e. occult

tethered cord). There was no spinal fluid flow at the L4-L5 level and all of my

nerve roots were bound down into two tight bundles with arachnid adhesions.

There was a tortuous vein abutted up against and underneath the tight filum.

After they cleared out the adhesions and cut the filum, it bounced up about 1

1/2 " , and my spinal fluid flow went back to normal in the lumbar region. Since

my surgery, a lot of my Chiari symptoms backed off, especially the everyday

shocks down my spine. I have not noticed my headaches as much either. Mind you,

I still have a myriad of other problems at my skull base, but I have not been

decompressed because I'm functional. After surgery, I developed Restless Leg

Syndrome two weeks ago which is being combated with Miramex. I will soon go off

this medicine to see if the RLS has settled down. Evidently, RLS happens to a

lot of people after spinal cord surgery. I have some questions though.

I have L4-L5 and L5-S1 herniations. I'm not having problems with L4-L5, but the

L5-S1 herniation is causing me problems I believe. There is an annular tear

there and fluids from the center of my disc still leak out and according to my

discogram report, when I was injected at that level with dye/pressure, it sent

pain down my leg and into my foot. I'm also dealing with left foot drop. I'm

going to PT, but the more I work on the foot drop, the more pain I have. When

I'm out and about doing errands or standing on my feet for a while, my foot

becomes worse with pain, I limp more, and I tend to trip over my left foot,

especially when I walk up stairs. Another problem that PT is trying to address

is the severe cramping in my calves I get. I cannot loosen them up no matter

what I do. Just sitting in a chair, I feel the right calf pain constantly and it

is very sharp. Am I always going to have this? I've tried to ask questions in

this group before, but for the most part I do not get responses back. I'm about

to give up here and stop participating. I'm not trying to be rude, but I really

feel as if I've been left out in the cold for the most part.

Take care,

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