Is most of your pain/numbness in your legs as opposed to your back? I had herniated discs at both L4/L5 and L5/S1 level, and I had daily, constant burning and numbness down my right leg, to the toes. I had a microdiscectomy at both levels, and now I’m in the best shape of my life. My understanding is that you are a good candidate for this surgery if your symptoms are in the legs moreso than in the back, which was the case for me.
38, herniated L4/5 and L5/S at 18 playing rugby, both degenerating. Had three pain-free days in 20 years. Most of the pain in the legs, but it depends on when it’s a good day and when it’s a bad day.
The specialists have told me that the only surgical option for my particular ruptures are a full discectomy and artificial disc replacement which has a 5% chance of critical complicatory effects and would need to be re-done every 5-7 years until someone invents a more permanent fix. I don’t like those odds so I haven’t had the surgery.
The only things I can recommend for someone in my situation is to avoid bodily stresses that cause flare-ups, find yourself a desk job that’ll let you use a standing desk (try retraining in IT), get to know that the fact that furniture is ‘ergonomically correct’ doesn’t mean it’s the best for you, get a script for a powerful anti-inflammatory such as Mobic and a powerful painkiller and know that you can’t use them both at the same time (they use the same binding sites), and see if you can find a drug combo that’ll leave you unconscious while your spine relaxes enough for the protrusions to decrease. Mine is codeine and alcohol.
Oh, and owning a malamute is contraindicated.
my pain goes from my neck to my feet i have disks that herniate to opposit sides in my neck and thorasic spine. plus the stenosis. then the 3 degenerating disks the majority of the pain is my neck and my lower back. and do you know that feeling you get after your foot falls asleep my left leg feels like that all the time it is very very uncomfortable i fell face first into my wall this morning getting out of bed. when i stood up it was like my leg wasnt even there.
this is an very old thread, I think
I had DDD, l5s1, and had my spine fused, at age 40.
I still have not recovered at 52.
talk to me if you have a q
[QUOTE=BigNik]
38, herniated L4/5 and L5/S at 18 playing rugby, both degenerating. Had three pain-free days in 20 years. Most of the pain in the legs, but it depends on when it’s a good day and when it’s a bad day.
The specialists have told me that the only surgical option for my particular ruptures are a full discectomy and artificial disc replacement which has a 5% chance of critical complicatory effects and would need to be re-done every 5-7 years until someone invents a more permanent fix. I don’t like those odds so I haven’t had the surgery.
[/QUOTE]
45 years old here, and a day where my pain is below a "5” is really good day. Next week, I’m finally getting L4-L5-S1 fused.
Your doc seems to be ignoring fusion as a surgical option, and the notion of needing to replace an artificial disc every five years is absurd. I have never heard of anyone that was able to remove an ADR and replace it with another, and I’ve been researching ADR for the past two years. When those things come out, the only viable revision option is fusion.
Lumbar ADR has been a mixed bag. Some people have excellent results, and others end up utterly bereft and miserable. Some surgeons blindly say “I can fix you with this implant” without actually doing the due diligence to see what’s actually going on inside, then the ADR fails because that segment was mechanically unstable to begin with, or the patient does something dorky to cause the disc to fail. My neurosurgeon was saying most of the failures he’s seen are from people who decided to take up bungee jumping, wrestling or piano moving, and they either rip the implant out of the vertebrae, or they crush the thing so hard that the wear surface squirts out. Weight management is utterly critical as well.
In the US, at least, the neurosurgical community is starting to cool off on lumbar ADR as the technology just isn’t up to original specs. The orthopedic guys haven’t figured this out yet. FWIW, I’d never willingly let an orthopedic surgeon mess with my spine.
Who’s doing your fusion surgery if it’s not an orthopedic surgeon?
I’m 49 years old and had two back surgeries before I decided to have a two-level spinal fusion. I had my first surgery - L5/S1 herniation when I was 19 years old and had excellent results. My pain was virtually gone (with the occasional flare-up when I did something stupid). About 8 years ago, I injured my back and had surgery on L4/L5. It was not a success and the pain remained, along with some slight numbness in my right leg. I decided to avoid the knife again and just lived with it. Before anyone says anything, I has tried every reasonable alternative to help with the problem before both of my surgeries.
Two years ago, I chose to have a fusion. I was tired of taking medicine and still living with moderate to severe pain. I wanted to enjoy and participate in physical activities without the high level of chronic pain. I did all the research, saw several doctors, and the advice was unanimous: Have the fusion. So I did, using one of the finest neurosurgeons in a region noted for fine medical care. Now, I still have the pain in my back, leg, and foot. However, it involves much more of my leg and foot. If that was all that had changed, it would have been something I could deal with.
Unfortunately, the mild drop foot I now have in my previously unaffected foot has radically changed things. Before, I could still do things like jog, shoot basketball, play golf and tennis – with lots of pain, but I could do them. Now, those things are all gone. Never again will I play kickball with my class or run to my car when it rains. I’m lucky that things aren’t much worse. At least I can walk without a brace so that I don’t drag my foot. That may come, but not yet.
What I’m saying is: Be sure of the decision before you have the fusion. If you can stand the pain (even with meds), be absolutely sure that you are willing to accept the real chance of failure. Fusion will not make your back the way it was before you developed problems. It might very well help. I hope it does. However, I’d give just about anything to be in my pre-fusion situation. The mobility I lost may seem small to some, but it has radically changed my life.
I tell you all of this because I don’t want anyone to make the same mistake I did. If the pain makes it so that you can’t live without the fusion (or if you have severe stenosis or other conditions that make the surgery unavoidable), then you have no other option. However, if you can make it a while longer through pain management and/or other methods, then wait. Fusions can’t be reversed. Please know that I am not trying to insult your intelligence or imply that you haven’t explored all your choices before deciding to have fusion, especially on multiple levels.
Whatever your decision, I wish you only the best. If you have the fusion, I hope the results meet or exceed your expectations. Take care.
[QUOTE=fjs1fs]
Who’s doing your fusion surgery if it’s not an orthopedic surgeon?
[/QUOTE]
A neurosurgeon - the same one who did my cervical ADR in 2011.