Painful numb legs after epidural for bowel cancer op

[LiterallyProblematic]

FIL had an op to remove a tumour from his bowel a month ago. He now has a bag which he seems to be coping remarkably well with, and his mood had been pretty buoyant. He’s struggling now though because the pain and numbness in his legs isn’t improving, and he sounds quite depressed.
We’re not really sure what to do to help him. We live 1 1/2 hours away so close enough to help but not every day sadly.
Tia

Sorry, not v clear what I’m asking for but has anyone experienced the same thing?
Also, any tips to help with the pain/numbness.
Also help with the low mood (not quite as AD stage yet).

What did they say when he told them about the numbness/pain before discharge?

The reason for asking that is that if they thought it was due to the epidural I’m pretty sure he’d have had an MRI done urgently and neurology/neurosurgery follow-up organised depending on what the scan showed. What you’ve described sounds rather atypical for an epidural complication (but nothing’s impossible). There are other reasons unrelated to the epidural that he may have neuro symptoms (eg. he may have had is legs up in ‘stirrups’ during the operation & that can occasionally cause problems particularly in older (stiffer) folk). If he didn’t tell anyone about it/hasn’t been examined then he needs to see his GP & if they think it sounds likely to be epidural related/related to the surgery then they’ll be able to contact the anaesthetics dept/surgeons he was under or neuro people as appropriate. Hope that helps. (DOI: anaesthetist)

@Greybeardy thank you, that’s very helpful. he is booked in for an MRI scan next week.

I hadn’t realised that when I wrote initially.

Poor thing is getting quite fed up about it all. I think he was hoping to be able to drive soon, but no chance of that yet.
Thank you.