CANADA : Advice Needed Recurring Backpain after L4/L5 TLIF
I am a 42yr old Female, 5'8'' and 167pds - currently taking Valium 5mg / Advil 400mg / Tylenol 3000mg daily with the occasional Oxy 5mg if pain is terrible.
Will do my best to keep this shorter and not drag this on - in May 2018 I had a workplace injury where I had a 375 pound object fall on my and crush me. This resulted with herniating my disc at L4/L5 and in June of 2018 I had a microdiscectomy.
Fast forward to January of 2022 I ended up having a TLIF at L4/L5 due to recurring back pain and herniation.
In January of 2023 I ended up having a revision of my L4/L5 TLIF due to the cage migrating and impinging my L5 nerve root on the right side. Recovery went great and after about 13 months I was feeling like myself again.
Since about March of 2025 I just cannot get rid of my low back pain that radiates down into both my legs but mostly the right side. I have had new imagining done (CT, MRI, SPECT) and all show signs of little things here and there like bone spurs, or possible narrowing of the right L5 nerve root but nothing concreate. I also had a EMG done and it has returned permanent nerve damage at L5 as I have numbness in my right calf, top of my right foot and my big toe followed by the 2 next to it but luckily no drop foot.
I have also been for cortisone injections between L3/S1 bilaterally - facet injections - I have had radio frequency ablation ect .... and I stretch regularly, go to physio, get massages, shockwave therapy and eat well ect ...
I am told a lot of the pain could be residual scar tissue and I understand I will never be 100%. I basically go day by day and some days are better than others but most days are a 7 out of 10 for pain.
I feel what I have is a great surgeon here in Alberta but what are my options? I don't believe you can fix everything with surgery but I also have no clue how to advocate for myself and what my options are treatment wise - can I even get another surgeons opinion?
I understand in the USA you seem to be able to just make an appointment with a surgeon and interview them and make choices - but with my injury being WCB here in Canada I feel like my options are quite limited. If I go off on my own somewhere I might impact any coverage I do have.
Thoughts?
