I have been diagnosed with Degenerative disc disease

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irene498

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I have also been diagnosed with Degerative disc disease. Turns out this was revealed years ago after multiple tissue tears. My doctors did nothing. I have started seeing a Rhuemotologist and the med race started. We tried lyrica and it worked for a few months than the pain started again. He put me on prednisone and that worked great. After all blood work he came up with RA. He stated that prednisone is a nasty drug causing all kinRAB of side affects but helped him figure out what was wrong.He wants to start me on something called Methtrexate. This med is a very serious drug and it is used for certain types of cancer but is supposed to stop the deteriation of your joints. I have not started taken it because you can not drink at all. You can end up with liver failure. Some Doctors swear by it. I also need surgery but can't afford it and it will only repair the tears not the condition. For now I am happy with taken the pain meRAB as needed. I feel if my pain is under control I am not focused on that therefore bettering my quality of life. I hope this helps
 
You may want to seek out some advice on the Arthritis board as well as there may be people there with RA. Much of what is seen on this board is back problems that are not concurrent with RA (though we may have a few here with RA). I know that Methotrexate is commonly used in RA and is a strong medication with many effects. It's a matter of pros vs cons and quality of life. I recently started a long acting pain medication that scared me when I read all of the potential side effects. But luckily thus far I've had no adverse side effects.
 
Below is my MRI results, so I epxected the upteenth dr to call back and tell me i have a hereniated disk and needed ot fix it, but they suprised me and said i don't (although you can see teh MRI says so) and have Degnerative DD and need to immediatly go for a discogram. Have you had one of those?

Here's my situation. I am lost now as I thought I was going to have a simpel procedure and now it is looking like it is getting complex. Any suggestions?
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Hi - I have had back pain/right leg pain and right hip pain for almost a year and just had a second mri. Going back to the Dr soon, but wanted to get some thoughts from others that are having similair issues and what they have done to resolve. I have tried epidorals (3), oral sterioRAB, and PT. Not much luck. This MRI reveals that I have a mild bulging disc at L3-L4 and L4-L5 with a small superimposed central disc herniation at L3-L4 mimimally asymmetric to the right, resulting in mild thecal sac compression. Also, I have narrowing disc space present at L4-L5 and there is a decreased disc signal on T2 weighted images at L4-L5 due to disk degeneration. AND, there is a straightening of the normal lordosis. I have met with one surgeon and now talking with another, but want to get other perspectives/thoughts. Anyone have any similiar issues? Was surgery required, etc.?
 
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