my son had an acute onset of back pain, loss of sensation in his left lower limb and buttocks followed in hours by loss of ability to pass urine, move his bowels or have an erection. he was rushed to hospital and had decompression of L4 L5. they said this was disc herniation. sent home about 30 hours later in a car on a three and ahalf hour journey. i am a physio. i went to ireland to him and he could mobilise independently, do stairs and was recovering bladder function although with burning. his GP diagnosed UTI. within five days his original symptoms returned. local hospital phoned dublin. surgeon said he had a routine follow up in three days, and to attend then. he was re-admitted from out patient clinic. he had second surgery following 'lump' on MRI. they found a dural tear, said nothing else was there and padded it with a fat patch. no symptom reduction whatsoever. after saying he had cauda equina syndrome, they then said he didn't. he was given a third surgery. the motor ability in his left lower limb returned, some improvement in bladder and bowel sensation the same. over the next four days, he progressively lost the movement in his leg again.

i can't understand these intermittent symptoms. if this is nerve damage, how did he regain the use and lose it twice. he is said now to have mormal EMG with some nerve damage of left lower leg. he has foot drop and grade 1 muscle power around his left hip and in left thigh. bladder muscle not working, he self catheterises. please help me. does he need a second opinoin? his is also pretty drugged for pain, muscle spasms only present after third op and his pain is worse at night he is 28 years old.