Ha! Ha! don't mean to laugh but I am in the exact position you are although I got lucky as the disk moved into my spinal cord so i can't feel the pain any more but oh ya my body still expesses it.
Funny thing is i can't feel it so I never know how extreem it is and sometimes start loosing consiousness and get dizzy loose balance it is so bad.
But before the disk moved it was constant and bad.
Surgery is the easiest way out but sometimes going down this road may not be whats best for us, it's pretty scary and the results can be very bad thats why no one will touch us, I can't even get a surgeon to examine me any more.
If you follow some of the other postes you will see that people go through these surgeries over and over again all there lives for years dude, and ya in some cases it helps but if they won't touch you there is a reason believe me.
You are in the middle of a intersection and realy need to think this through very carefully as you will eventualy find someone to do this surgery.
So I will help you by showing you the options.
Surgery- probley a 20% success rate in your case maybe less
accept this and make the choice of having this injury controll your life forever, living your life in and out of hostpitals constantly obligated to tend docter appointments, MRI's, consultations, never beeing free of this. and the possibility of the surgery going bad the results would tramatise you for life.
so surgery goes well there is a 80% chance of re-injury maybe next year or maybe in 3 years
Option 2, manage and controll the injury. This is what I choose and it took me a long time to figure it all out, but I found the best of it.
When people told me to do this I also said what the frick man you don't know what its like.
The first step is accepting this will be with you forever, then get it under controll.
There are many types of medication but some only suite certian things, i tried percacet, moraphine, lyrica and every type of tylenol.
The only things this did is make me all confused and out of it I hated the feeling of no controll and feeling like a vegtable, who wants to live like that.
My injury is simmilar to yours and I now take Tramadol.
This medication works very well for me, you only take 1 a day it is a slow release pain medication, it controlls the pain, allows me to sleep at night pain free, slows life down a little and makes me feel content with my injury, while always having a clear head and not feel all drugged up.
So if you haven't tried this you may consider this or keep testing others till you find one that best suites your neeRAB.
Now with this we know our lives will never be the same so lets look at what bennifates we can make out of this rather then feel sarrow and depleted.
This is what I have come up with.
People work there whole lives 40 -50 years so that they can one day retire and enjoy there lives.
In my case I worked 15 years and now get to retire for 40- 50 years work free and have so so much time to fullfill my life and also get bennifates that even people who retire don't get.
My wife can never nag me to take out the garbage again, she can never nag me to mow the lawn, I never have to stand in line at a store again as I can't shop.
I can rest whenever i want weather it's at the lake or on the beach as long as I rest.
I never have to be to work on monday, and if i go somewhere and am enjoying my self I don't have to leave I can extend my stay for an extra day or week what ever I want remeraber i have 40 -50 years to do as i want.
Nobody to report, no boss and do as I please when ever I want.
Wanna stay up all night playin video games or watching movies who cares just take a nap during the day.
Going to inlaws for dinner, forget it don't have to and don't need to make up any excuses as I have a ticket to freedom, and no one can argue that.
bored wanna start a small business in my spare time, oh ya I'm injured almost a gauranteed grant, and guess what I can operate it as a hobby as i please from a laptop while at the lake in bed as I feel. It's a hobbie, get tired take a nap. I have no time frame.
No more hustle and bustle of real life
wanna design websites or take some kind of corispondence course, gouverment will automaticly fund you.
You know i understand and it takes some time to understand that you may never be able to go after trophy fish again but you have all the time in the world to catch as many small fish as you want when you want.
My injury devasted me but now I understand that it has given me a ticket to so much I have 50 years of freedom, and pain a very small sacrafice and when you get it under controll you have the world.
I can never lift anything over 5lbs again so great let someone else do it for me. Let every one else do the labour your in retirement.
Find your limits when you begin seeing the signs of pain go rest. and eventualy you will get further and furher one day walking around like every one else ya limited but you have all the time in the world with so many bennifates.
So these are just some of the good things i have found and it has made my injury much easier to deal with then thinking of all the bad ways it effects me.
you may say well you don't know what it's like, but ya I was parylised from the waist down only 2 weeks ago unconsoius but seeing everything around me corRAB flying docters runnin and ya it was the scaryest thing i have ever been through, this is what taught me to controll this injury i never want to be there again. Surgery Ya right why would i want to go through this over and over again for the rest of my life when I have all that is in front of me.
Now I'm walking around the house and soon who know a month or year down the road walking to the store then the park.
So I hope this helps, and good luck.
