help i need advise on surgery/adr what do i do

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Tiffrose

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i take medicine everyday. percs or hydro. i was wondering whether my back is bad enough to go through with the artificial disc replacement. i have kiRAB, i can pick them up (26 lbs. and 11 lbs.). i pick them up correctly and i just get a little sore. i wanted to know how your back feels on a daily basis and if you have good days. i can put on my shoes. sitting for long perioRAB is tough. it's not terrible pain its just bad and nagging. it affects my daily life. i have a contained herniation discogram positive. i feel like even if i start to feel a little better that it wouldn't hurt to have the surgery since my disc is shot pretty much. the bulge is not that much. i wake up with my leg nurab several times a week. i dont sleep like i use to. i have to lay on my side or i will have leg nurabness in the morning or wake up in pain. laying on my back is a no no. but still, it's not terrible. please give me some advise. just because i'm not able to do anything doesn't mean i still shouldn't have the surgery. oh, i was a police officer and lost my job because of my back. duty belt weight was 15 pounRAB (gun belt) and sitting and arresting perps was hard, i couldn't wrestle or fight them.

sorry so long. what do you think. how is yours compared to mine. would you have surgery. please please help. jason
 
I recently had hemilaminectomy and facetectomy at l5/s1. I'm 1 1/2 weeks post op. Your symptoms sound like what I was dealing with - although from your post the problems were not the same.

Surgery recovery the first few days was very tough, however, I am now - only after a week or so - glad I had the surgery. I still have some issues but I'm already feeling better.

The type of surgery you would have sounRAB a bit more involved than mine was so hopefully others will respond as well. Becky
 
I started having the same symptoms as you several months ago. I just thought is was a sore back and didn;t pay much attention to it. I went to the chiro and couple times. Then just in the last two-three weeks my left leg would go nurab, especially my feet. The Doctors didn't know what was wrong and told me that I might have Fibromyalgia?? because of several other problems. Well, just got the results of my MRI and I have a fractured back down at L5, DDD, and Spondylithesis (sp). Anyway, we went from 0-10 on the surgery scale. It is now scheduled for this up coming week(found this out Friday). So this is my second spinal surger (ACDF C4/5), and third surgery in less than a year. I'm going on 28 years old! Point is, when then nurabness starts, thats usually not a good sign. Start talking to the Neurosurgeon maybe get another MRI or Xrays. Your back can change quickly. I think if I would have listened to my body several months ago, I may have been able to go to PT to fix this. Now I'm looking at a pretty large surgery. Not to scare you, just listen to your body. You may be able to fix something now that won't be too invasive.

Take Care
 
I had 2 surgery's for l4/5 herination...
and I really cant tell if it "worked"
if I could do it all over again, I would have done serious PT with swimming pool work, drugs, and lots of walking before I would have said yes to surgery
and now that i have had 2 endoscopic discectomys, it may be bold and stupid but if i could choose again, i would just go for the ADR
its in my opinion thats once the disc is injured its just bad for who knows how long, and with possible scarring with surgery and re-injuring something that obviously wasnt strong enough to begin with, I would just replace the whole damn thing...

just my opinion about my own experience..

cheers
kj
 
From what I read in your post, you have a herniated disc. That would not and does not require a fusion or ADR and there are several factors that determine, if it came to that down the road, whether you are even a cadidate for the ADR.

But right now you need to deal with the problem at hand. You have already had the discogram and it was positive, proving where your pain is coming from. A discectomy, which is a hernia repair, would be the first treatment.

My OSS told me right from the start, after all the tests, that I had a herniated L5S1 and after a postive discogram, he said he would do a discectomy to repair it. This is not major surgery and recovery is pretty quick. He told me that there are no guarantees that it wouldn't herniate again and if it did, he would do a second discectomy, trying to hopefully avoid the need for a fusion. That is the last option. He said if it herniated a third time, then I would have to have a fusion. That is exactly how it went and by the time I had my 3rd discogram before the fusion surgery, it revealed the L4L5 was also causing my pain. That did not show up on any of the tests/films. If he hadn't done a discogram, he would have done a single fusion and I would have come out of surgery still in pain and needed a second fusion surgery. The discogram is usually the last test done right before surgery, so it looks like your doctor has tried all the other treatments and with a positive discogram, looks like a discectomy is in your future.

Only you can know and decide if you pain warrents surgery. You mentioned it has affected your lifestyle and your sleep etc. but I think you said it was bearable. You will know it when you are ready to have surgery. When your pain is an 11 on a scale of 1-10, you won't even be asking this question anymore. That was the case before all three of my surgeries. There was nothing but the surgery that was going to fix my problem and I am so glad I did it, all three of them. Many people get a discectomy/hernia repair and never have another problem. That is why you don't jump to Major back surgery first.

I have a wonderful OSS and all of my surgeries resolved my problem. But, especially the older you are, there is always a chance of reherniation. I would do it all again in a heartbeat.

Good Luck,
Casey
 
hi casey thanks for that positive insite as to having surgery for this particular area of the spine and i'm glad it has helped you to remain positive for the future in relation to your back care.

All the best Judi
 
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