cinnamon and holidaymummy welcome, but so sorry you need to be here. I will read through properly and post for each of you, I have no paper and my thread is on a roll not on pages, so I have to scroll a million messages to get to the top to remind myself of what I am posting about and to whom!
I think the stinging pain I am feeling is not nerve pain. Or, maybe it's nerve pain, but the initial source is not the nerve iyswim. I am thinking this because, there are two distinct nerve pains going on (as well as the usual mechanical back pain going on):
The usual hard and deep pain which goes down my legs, sometimes stabby, not always, sometimes period type pain, but very clearly nerve related - from that I get pins and needles (rarely these days though) in my feet, often in my buttocks (in particular when I sit) and numb patches in various places. This is usual and is something I have had on and off for 2.5 years to various degrees. It is annoying and painful but, manageable much of the time, peaking in levels from time to time, normally when I overdo it. I know that this pain is not relieved by using tramadol, codeine or other 'normal' painkillers, but is helped with amytripyline etc etc.
Then there is this stinging pain. This was not really present before surgery. Not that I noticed in huge degrees, although I was in so much pain nerve and muscle spasm wise that I may well have not noticed the type of pain. This pain goes from very deep in my spine, right into my buttocks, into my groin and pelvic area, down into my legs, knees, calf and feet, the more severe it is, the further down it goes, and with it, I also get a period type pain, like a contraction almost that sort of ebbs and flows. It also does feel like nerve pain and sometimes I do find it difficult to differentiate between both pains, they are clearly mixed. But. This pain seems to reduce, sometimes to almost nothing when I take a shit ton of painkillers (tramadol and codeine). Monday and Tuesday I absolutely walloped the heck out of this shit with opiates. Yesterday I felt so so much better. Still painful to move, to bend in particular and to straighten properly but better.
My fuzzy head and shocking sleep however meant that today I decided to reduce the painkillers a little. I woke feeling groggy due to bad sleep and meds, and back pain I felt reasonable. We went to the beach, there by 9:30am as I was desperate to get out and see the sea (it's my meditation to some extent), lovely and quiet, I literally wet my legs in the sea, almost falling over as the pebbles moved from under my feet by the waves! 
jarred my back! not badly really. I did not do much at all. Came home and cleaned the kitchen, a little, emptied the fridge and cleaned it ready for shopping that arrives this afternoon. I was feeling so much better I was thinking that it was a good job I took this week off, should have done the two weeks straight away and not tried to go back as I obviously just needed a bit more time.
And now, the stinging has come back full force. Wow. I have taken some more tramadol as the codeine is in the first aid box in the car, which DH has taken to work! Otherwise I would have topped up with codeine. But it makes me think that maybe it's muscular or mechanical in it's nature, as my back has tightened, spasmed completely, solid (and I had a nice hot bath after the beach) and I can't stand. I find the stinging increases when I engage my core muscles and goes straight into my feet. Do you think that the muscles being in spasm could be trapping a nerve, so if I get that down it eases and when they go nuts again it traps the nerve again? Is that possible?
It means that I thought I was on the bend, but one day of relief is not enough. Clearly. I have stopped cleaning for now.