I have to have this done but I needit to wait until June.... Plus I have to get another cortisone shot in my knee and I have a bulging disc that's pressing on a nerve. And that's below the lumbar BS.... Ugh getting old sucks!!
Not sure I ever posted in 2012 on this, but I had similar condition to the back in 1997. Herniated disk so bad that some of the disk stuff itself was lodged between my vertebrae in spine. Sciatica was so bad I couldn't sit for more than a few minutes. Tried chiroprators, injections, acupuncture, PT--nothng helped. So I ended up getting a lamenectomy performed by a neurosurgeon who had done similar surgery on my father. It absolutely "cured" the core sciatica. But I was left with a dull pin in my hip that's not nearly as bad. Took my original MRI films to a different neurosurgeon and he pointed out that originally two disks were shot, but the operating doc only fixed one. I decided I didn't want more surgery so I've lived with the not horrific hip and back pain since. Unless someone invents some minimally invasive surgery (I've heard very mixed things about laser disk survey) I'll probably just keep living with it. I'm able to work, exercise and do just about anything. If I'm busy doing something I don't notice the pain. I'm worried that if I get more surgery something else will get damaged (and I have terrible stories I can tell about back surgeries performed on others I know that went horribly wrong).
My advice for anyone considering surgery is to not place your total trust in orthopedic surgeons. Those guys are surgeon cowboys and they love nothing better than to break you up and wire you back together. Talk to one, but also talk to a neurosurgeon. They tend to be more conservative in their approach. Whoever, you consult, make absolutely sure that they can read an MRI and are not trusting a technician's report. I've got a good story about an ortho-cowboy who made a totally wrong surgical recommendation based on a typo in a technician's report because he himself couldn't read MRIs.
Man that sucks. I'm not that bad yet. I can get by without meds but who knows about the future. Cross that bridge when I get there. Praying for you brother. All I know from back surgery is what my dad went thru 30 years ago I'm guessing they are better at it today.
Bearswatter has an implanted electrical stimulator. Wires go to spinal nerves. I forget what they call it. She swears by the thing.
“It has been a source of great pain to me to have met with so many among [my] opponents who had not the liberality to distinguish between political and social opposition; who transferred at once to the person, the hatred they bore to his political opinions.” —Thomas Jefferson (1808)
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My advice for anyone considering surgery is to not place your total trust in orthopedic surgeons. Those guys are surgeon cowboys and they love nothing better than to break you up and wire you back together. Talk to one, but also talk to a neurosurgeon. They tend to be more conservative in their approach. Whoever, you consult, make absolutely sure that they can read an MRI and are not trusting a technician's report. I've got a good story about an ortho-cowboy who made a totally wrong surgical recommendation based on a typo in a technician's report because he himself couldn't read MRIs.