Leg pain and numbness

[Mart25]

I had a bypass op last October and my left leg was used to provide the vein used for the bypass. The surface scar is healing well but I have a mixture of pain and numbness over an wide area from the scar upwards to my knee. My knee is also numb in a rather weird way : when I kneel down on both knees it feels like they are on very different surfaces. I know that it's almost impossible to harvest the vein and not damage the nerves nearby, so I was expecting some leg problems. But I'd be interested in the experiences of others. Does the pain and numbness eventually go away? How long does it take? Or are you left with permanent effects? Is there anything that makes it better faster....or is it just a matter of time? Thanks.

[duncs6536]

3 years this month since bypass and still left leg is sore 😫 mart so take it day by day

[reidmar]

HiI'm 2 years after a quadruple and my right leg still has the odd day when it feels a bit numb and sometimes a bit of soreness and there's always a few small spots where its numb of just feels funny all of the time but then again I have to suppose that there's so many nerves all over the body that when they cut the full length of the leg open to harvest the veins then its impossible for them not to cause any nerve damage and I look at it as a small price to pay to be able to get on with life after such a major life-saving operation. Definitely has got better since my op but even after 2 yrs it's still not 100%, annoyed me at first but thankfully managed to get my head into a way of thinking "it is what it is, so just get on with it" I hope you manage something similar. I sometime joke to the wife "well that's my modelling career over".

Hope you manage to get some relief and best of luck

[Mart25 in reply to reidmar]

Thanks for your reply. It's helpful to know what might happen as time goes by. Similar to you, I've been joking that "my international football career is over".

[Grayjay]

Hi Mart, I'm still a bit sore after 20 years, but I'm still here that's the main thing. 😅👍

[Fredders]

I’ve not had a bypass op but when I had my second AVR op in 2017 they made an exploratory incision in my groin, don’t know why and they’ve never enlightened me, which damaged a nerve. Afterwards the pain was agony every time I moved my leg. In the end they gave me gabapentin, which is a painkiller for nerve pain. It worked brilliantly, so might be worth speaking to your GP about if the pain is really bad. I only had to take it for a month. However my leg is still slightly numb in that area and for the first couple of years it was very painful in cold weather, so I wore tubigrip on my thigh, which did the trick. Wendy