back surgery
 

who here has ever had back surgary? lower or upper? did it help you or make no difference?
i just got out of the hospital tuesday night after being hauled in with so much lower back pain they had to put me on (morfean) just to get me out of my house. mulitple x-rays and 2 MRI's have concluded i have 2 herniated disks one of which is crushing my siatic nerve down my left leg. just from the nerve being pinched my left leg has lost roughly 60% of motor ability. im set to have the back surgary tuesday mornin august 3rd. everyone express your thoughts on this.

Wish you the best.. i would of seen accupressure or puct dr or a chriopractor.. i saw the chriopactor after i was schedual for my surgery so glad i did.. but my disk was buldging.. i had dilaten ?? thats a really good pain killer ( 6 -8 times stronger than morfean)

Talk to No Problem....hes had a good deal done and can tell you all about it.

been doin the cyropractor 3 days a week for 6 weeks and havent gotten any reliefe

Id think that could make it worse

First surgery at 17 on L-3,L-4 and L-4,L-5... Second one at 22, three days after my wedding, L-3,L-4, L-4,L-5 and L-5,S-1... Third at 31 on L-4,L-5 and L-5,S-1...

Cant feel touch on my left leg anymore from scar tissue and surgery damage, but that happened only after the third surgery. Have to be careful or I am laid up for days...

Do the surgery, you have to to function... Might try a steriod injection, that kept me from having a surgery at 28... Bought me 3 more years...

Holy shit man, stay the hell away from those retards... Here, let me twist you and crack your back with a ruptured disk... Should make it better...:argh:

Thatz sad!!!!!!!:humm:

I would not get back surgery unless the pain is so great you can't function and you have exhausted all other options. My wife had back surgery 2 years ago after a accident at work. She had a lumbar spinal fusion. Which required 3 disk removed and replaced with steel cages and two steel rods put up the side of her spine. During the surgery the surgeon made a mistake and got one of the cages off center crushing the nerve down her left leg leaving it mostly unusable. After the second surgery to fix the mistake in 24 hours when we asked for a explanation from the doctor and attorneys to why this mistake was made we where told that its just the risk of back surgery and that its not that uncommon. She is 27 now and on permanent disability. I don't want to scare you but if it was me I would save surgery for a last resort. You will have to change your entire life style and learn how to mange the pain. From watching your weight and it will pile on with a back injure, to learning your limitations how much you can lift how far you can walk, what kind of bed you sleep on, and what kind of vehicle you drive. Try to stay off the pain killer they will make you hurt worse in the long run.

Nothing like having a bone cracker take a ruptured disc and making it worse.....:argh::argh:

I've got a blown L4,5 & S-1 & every now and again it flares up, when it 1st blew I was over in the UAE and spent 3 days drugged out of my mind laying on a cot in a tent....was over 100 yards to the bathroom so I pissed in bottles and did not eat for 3 days...

The VA had one of 2 guys certified in the McKenzie Institute therapy and it's saved me from going under the knife for a few years now... The McKenzie Institute - Welcome to the McKenzie Institute International

Once you are cut on it will never stop, pick and choose extremly carefully & don't go to any old hack wit a knife....

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:

what is everyones opinion on traction to try and get the disk to return to normal?

I think that's what fixed me up. Inversion. Metal boots with hooks around the ankles, hang upside down, same thing. Should help as long as the damage is not too severe.

Find a specialist for that particular type of surgery. See them, bring the films, encourage them to do them again if they would like more info.

If you've already lost some function, I'd say do it, assuming a specialist thinks you should. Chiropractors and therapists are usually good people with good intentions, but doctors are the smartest of the smartest. surgeons are the best of the smartest of the smartest. Specialists are the best of the smartest of the smartest that spent as long as most people spend in college studying just the kind of surgery they specialize in, after 6+ years of studying medicine, after getting As through college studying bio and chem.
No doubt everyone makes mistakes as humans, but I'd prefer to trust the best of the best and their mistakes than anyone else.

just from laying in a bed for 5 days im able to walk, stand and lay without pain just a slight tingle in the foot. before i went to the hospital tuesday morning i couldt stand for more than a minut, i couldnt walk without limping or walking hunchback, lay on either my side period and driving i had to put all my weight on my right side. this seems like quite an improvement for just bed rest 6 days streight

That's encouraging news! The specialist that did my surgery said MOST herniations heal on their own. The first trick is to get the swelling under control, which is likely the reason you feel overly better. Less swelling equals less pressure on that nerve. The next trick is keeping from aggravating or re-injuring the disc. My specialist said he recommends people give a herniation 2 months to heal on it's own (with proper pain management) before he considers surgery. Exceptions are obvious/severe limitations in sensation or movement, lack of bowel or bladder control or the pain level being too high to manage/control effectively without hospital/doctor supervision. Since I was already at 3 months and my condition was rapidly deteriorating, surgery was basically automatic.

GOOD LUCK!:tu:

hopefully you can get it healed up without surgery:tu:
every person is human and sooner or later is going to make a mistake:scare2:
you are gonna have to get some more opinions from doctors to make your decision
surgery may help but could make it worse if someone screws up while your out:ouch:

what ever you decide good luck with it and hopefully you will get back to some what normal with out pain
also as has been stated becarefull with the pain meds if your on them too long it can be painful trying to stop taking them :argh:

In my opinion Suergon's are always gonna suggest surgery, just the same as chiropractors are gonna suggest therapy, thats how they make a living:c:

I would not do it without exploring all your options. You run a 50/50 chance that you will be still feeling the pain even after the surgery.

The thing I worry about WRT back surgery is the doctor. Even the best neurosurgeon is still human and humans make mistakes. Back surgery is one of the few things in this world where mistakes sometimes cannot ever be corrected.