Synovial Cyst - ouch!!

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FlaDude

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Great board. I injured my lower back cleaning up debris from Hurricane Charlie. I was first diagnosed with a herniated disc at L4-L5. I first tried a year of PT, injections and chiropractor. Nothing helped at all. I couldn't even sit down for more than an hour before needing to lay down to make the pain go away. Finally I went with the Neurosurgeon advice to have a laminectomy/discectomy (probably misspelled). This was a total waste of 25k that i paid out of my own pocket. I then lived on pain pills for two more years until I was out of state working and became bed ridden due to the pain. My daughter had to fly up and help me get to the airport. That's when I took the Neurosurgeon's advice to have a fusion. After 3 months the pain finally subsided and I was pain free for the first time in 5 years. It's now been a bit over 2 years and the pain has come back full throttle. It may even be worse with the leg pain and tingling. This time the Dr says its a Synovial Cyst in L3-L4 just above where the fusion occurred. His diagnoses seems right on track with what I'm hearing on here, injections may help but not too confident and pretty much surgery will probably have to happen to remove it. I said the pain will have to get much worse before I go through surgery again.
I was hoping it would go away on its own but from what I'm reading that don't sound like it will happen. And may get worse with permanent nerve damage, and such. I'm not sure how big the cyst is but i'll post a pic asap.
Thanks for all this great information!
 
Here's the pic to my cyst. Not sure of the size in mm but it looks pretty large. I could tell the Dr changed the way he was discussing it after he saw the MRI results. First he acting as if its probably just tissue scar or not much to worry about. But after the MRI it was more serious and he was quick to say surgery will probably be a probable option.
Synovial_Cyst_small.jpg
 
Just did a quick checkin and wow ... that's a dandy cyst!! Ouch - IN DEED!! Have you had surgery to remove it yet? Did the neurosurgeon mention how big it was? Don't hesitate on the surgery ~ In my case, post op pain was WAY LESS than pre op pain!!! Just had to behave myself so the incision would heal ~ which I didn't do very well so it took awhile for it to close up completely. Keep us posted and be blessed!!!
 
The pain has gone away so I have suspended any further pain management until it comes back. The Dr is doubtful that it actually "went away" but rather hoping that it has gone down a bit to ease up on pressing against the spinal nerve. I have also taken my activity level down quite a bit. I got involved with Tae Kwon Do for the therapy with its stretching and core exercises when my back first got hurt. Well now, several years later, I'm suppose to test for my black belt in March 2011, 5 months. So this couldn't have come at a worse time. However, I have stopped all running and jumping in the classes. Instead I walk fast and do push-ups and sit-ups for the cardio and I substitute non-jumping kicks with other type kicks.
I still feel like the cyst will not and has not gone away and will continue to grow when I get too active. So I'll continue to post if it gets bad again.
 
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