What are my possible surgery options?

[sjh1987]

Hi, My name is Sean and I am 21 years old. I suffer from Spinal Stenosis, Degenerative Disc Disease, and two bulging discs.

I have suffered with back issues since I was 15 years old, I was never able to stand during a whole concert, a trip to a mall etc. Sometimes I would wake up and suffer from severe pain in my lower back for 3-4 days.

At the age of 18 I began to experience Sciatica, the pain persisted and became very very bad at some points. I decided to visit a chiropractor only to find no improvement. Finally one day it just went away. I would feel a little bit of pain shoot down my leg from time to time but that is all. Not until the spring of 2008 and the age of 20 did the pain slowly but surley came back. From this point I decided to look seriously into it. I have now been to two physical therapists, I have had two MRI's (the second showing an increase in disc slippage), and I have visited a neurosurgeon twice (only to tell me im to young, take some tylenol), and I have had three steroid injections. I am currently only prescribed to Hyrdocodone, but have tried many different meRAB prior.

My last visit to a neurosurgeon was fall of 2008, and my last MRI was february of this year. I have an appointment with a new neurosurgeon next week.

I am wondering what I could expect for possible treatment options as far as surgery go. I am going into that appointment pursuing surgery. I can hardly do my job at work, I can't play sports, I can't take my dogs on walks, etc.

I have also had some breathing problems the last two months, and was curious if anyone could tell me if that could be related to my back problems?

Thank you for all of your time!

 

[brendaks1]

Sean,

Welcome to the boarRAB and sorry to hear of your pain problems at such an early age. I escaped the dreaded sciatica until I was 40 years old.

None of us can really recommend any kind of surgery option since we are not medical professionals and we don't have full access to your medical recorRAB and tests. However, we can give you some advice on how to proceed and what to expect, as well as being here to support you as we are fellow back/sciatica pain sufferers.

It sounRAB like many of the medical professionals you have seen thus far have unfortunately minimized the amount of pain you are experiencing and have not really given you good guidance on how to get improvement. One of the things you will find if you look through the old posts is story after story of how all of us have had to visit multiple medical professionals to get to the ones who are really able to help us and that we feel comfortable with. One of my recommendations is to be persistent and keep trying to find the right professionals that you connect with and that you get good help from.

In relation to having surgery, the neurosurgeon you first saw was probably right that it would be best for you to not have surgery or delay it as long as possible, but it's unfortunate that they didn't get you in contact with the right help to improve your condition. I know this isn't what you want to hear, but having surgery at your age could make you worse in the long run. Sometimes surgery is unavoidable even at your age, but especially at your age you should try everything to avoid it. Surgery will not bring you back to 100% and take your pain completely away. What it usually does is take a person's pain level down to a more tolerable level. However, there are risks with back surgery such as infection, making your pain worse or not improving your pain, scar tissue formation, spinal instability, permanent nerve damage, etc.

If this surgeon you are seeing is recommending surgery, it is best to get at least one additional opinion from fellowship-trained orthopedic spine surgeons or neurosurgeons who only do spine surgeries. It's amazing how you can get such different opinions from different doctors.

I would also recommend trying core-strengthening exercises such as Pilates. If you can find a good physical therapist, this can do wonders for back problems. This has helped many people avoid back surgery, but it takes a lot of time doing the correct PT to improve back and sciatic pain.

As far as your breathing problems, it would not be related to your lower back spinal problems. There is an unlikely chance it could be related to a thoracic or cervical spinal problem, but more likely would be related to allergies or asthma or something along those lines.

Warm wishes and please let us know how your appointment with the neurosurgeon goes.

 

[gkoesterer]

Check into the X-Stop Procedure for the sciaticia. I had the procedure in January of 2009 and have absolutely no sciaticia pain anymore. Not all neurosurgeons are trained in the procedure, but I would sure check around and find one who is.

 

[murr3]

Ideal procedure for multi-damaged discs causing sciatica or spinal stenosis is PLDD (Percutaneous Laser Disc Decompression)!