always get a 2nd or 3rd opinion, surgens are much better than a couple of years ago. I just had my knee replace 4 weeks ago and can walk on it well already, I know it's not the spine but I have seen many have it with great results. good luck :ouch:

well ive herd more good about the surgary than bad. im noy going to do the shot because its only temporary relief, do the surgary now so i dont have to deal with it later

I turned down the surgery for a slipped disc between 6&7 eight years ago and glad I did. I was told chances were even it would help, hurt or do nothing. It took awhile to get used to the constant pain, but has slowly grown to a dull ache.

Are you not picking up what these guys are laying down? Surgery is a risk and your going to have to deal with this whether you have the surgery or not.

Im not an expert or even knowledgeable but thats what i get from the ones that know about this.

Have you looked into pain management?


Good luck - youre awful young to have back problems already - I hope you can get it fixed!

Surgery now or surgery later. Your life has just changed.

I used to carry my son on my sholders when he was little... Did it all the time, got to where he would duck under doors and such...

I could only do it every now and then with my daughter, because it would hurt my back...

No matter what you have to change everything you do.

i dont want another repeat of tuesday. 1 i dont remember it and 2 i may have to sell the fummins to pay the bills from the stuff this week, not including the surgary if i were to go threw it

I had a fusion done 8 months ago. Now im in more pain now. Im down more than im up , so if you dont need it DONT GET !!!!!!

there sayin that i wont need a fusion just to remove the herniation of the disk to make it so there wont be any more damage to my leg

I popped L4-L5 back on June-4 of 2007. Had to go through the B.S. of x-rays before getting the MRI's that showed the mangled disc, waiting almost 4 weeks total. Then had to wait TWO MONTHS:scare2: to see the neurosurgeon to decide if surgery was the answer. Turns out it was the only option.

By then, I was praying for someone to either cut me or shoot me. Between the pain of the actual disc, and it's mass pressing the sciatic nerve against the vertebrae killing my leg, it was impossible to function. The pain was horrific and I couldn't get away from it, no matter what position I tried. I couldn't sit. I couldn't stand. I couldn't lay down. I couldn't walk from room to room in my house without a cane. A wrong step would result in my legs just folding up under me and I'd hit the floor. Had to sit down to take a piss because I couldn't stand long enough. Couldn't take a shower. Had to take a bath and have my wife help me in and out of the damn bathtub. I had a constant lean to the left side due to the contents of disc being squeezed out the right side like a tube of toothpaste.

The docs had me on a steady diet of Percoset, Flexoril (muscle relaxer due to the extreme spasms) and industrial strength anti-inflammatories while I waited. The drugs didn't even seem to faze the pain. Or maybe they were the only reason I didn't end up chewing on a shotgun barrel. I don't know. All I know is I couldn't wait for the specialist to cut me open.

He did, on Sept 11 (yeah...9/11) and when I woke up 2 hours later, it felt like I was on vacation! THE PAIN WAS GONE!:jump: With the magic of scopes and lasers, the incision was only about 1 1/4 inches long. He was able to repair the remainder of the disc, clean out all the little pieces that were swimming around in my spine and he ground a groove in the vertebrae for the sciatic nerve to retreat to from the swelling. I was up and walking 8 hours afterwords, though I leaned the opposite direction for a few weeks due to the muscles not being used to holding me straight for over 3 months, went home the following morning and was back to work in a little under 5 weeks. He said the same procedure 7 years prior would have taken 3-4 months to recover from due to the 7-8 inch incision and muscle damage from the surgery!

I didn't need anything stronger than Alieve for the pain, though the muscle relaxers still came in mighty handy for a month or so. Today I say my back is probably about 90% of it's original strength and it likely won't get better than that. I'm able to do most everything I want to do and have full range of motion. Can still touch my toes, even with my fat belly in the way! I just have to slow down and plan ahead on what I really want to do and maybe find an easier (and less painful) way to get things done than I did before the injury.

In short, if you can't function and the specialist offers it as an option, consider the surgery.


Check out the deflated disc and resulting sideways curve of the spine in the MRI image below.

Every Case is Different
 

The main point being every case is different.

You just gotta figure out what's best for you. :humm: