Sound off if you have had back surgery

[Curval]

I'm looking for opinions.

This morning I coughed and almost passed out from pain.  I ended up on the floor at home and felt very much like the "Help, I've fallen and can't get up" woman from the TV commercial.   I ended up leaving work early after I laid down on the floor in my office to read a fax and had to call my secretary to help me get up.  

I've been "living with" a back that has been bothering me for a number of years.  I've had an MRI that shows that the first disk going up my spine has ruptured and is pushing against the siatic nerve.  I figured I would "tough" it out and allow the disk to degenerate on its own and shrink back and away from the nerve, which will happen naturally I'm told.

But honestly I am now considering an operation.  I've never felt pain like this before.  

Almost everyone I have spoken to about this has told me NOT to let any doctors near my back with a sharp instrument.  I've heard a number of horror stories.  But I've also heard some very good stories about some people's experience.

What about you guys?

[NUKE]

you have a spine?

Just kidding Curval, sorry to hear about your back......sounds painful.

Hope it gets worked out.

[Bodhi]

AVOID surgery at ALL costs.

Had an attempt to repair a ruptured disk in 01 from an 500 foot tumble down a back country chute, and it has never been the same, and in some cases the new pain left behind supercedes the one that was replaced.

The best things I have done to combat neck and back (spinal) pain is to work on my posture.  It has not happened over night, but the work has paid off, and I notice far less pain than I did 6 months ago.  Otherwise, go to a doc and get some non narc pain relievers.  

Best of luck Curval

[Roscoroo]

my Dad had 4 fused  and he still has pritty much normal function , this was 25 yrs ago .. Shure he still has some pain but i dont think its intollarable .


but id say wait as long as possiable .

[AWMac]

Curvy I can relate to the back pain..I have 2 compression fractures L4/L5 and an upper between the shoulder blades facing the heart.....  For the lower one I spent years on meds and Dr's were wanting to fuse the 2 vertebrate together...Ohhhh Hellllll Nooooooo....  

I went and had accupuncture done on the lower back once a week for 12 weeks and it made a BIG differance!!!

  Can't do much with the upper compression fracture, mainly posture and back brace. They initially gave me morphine for the pain but I hated it... was a lump for the whole Month last July.

Good luck to ya Bud.

[DieAz]

I know of several, that had that kind of surgery.
one guy had a disc that broke in 3 pieces, one went up inside his spine. they went in and got the one piece (about 1/3 of the disc)  out, left other 2 pieces. he will have to have surgery again sometime in the future.
pros: gets rid of the severe pain.
cons: it will give you trouble in later years.

look for all the options available.

if your case isn't too bad, may be able to meld it back together with the hot oil procedure.
if its bad enough, might have to have the disc removed and your spine fused.
it all depends on your case.

look it up on sites like webmd.com, should be able to find more info on what can be done.

[nsty1]

Curval,try 2,i say 2 herniated discs
and man,i know what you mean about coughing and having a whole new experience of pain everytime,Before,my pinched nerve was just affecting my left side of my leg,now the pain has gotten worse (due to my stubborness) now the pain is on both legs,talk about wobbly
ice pack it for now,reduce the swelling and above all if you can,rest on your stomach with a pillow under your waist.

best i have found on some fixes,they talk about injecting something or other in between  the discs,which i think sounds good versus cutting anything open,
check this link for info http://familydoctor.org/341.xml

hope you feel better

[eagl]

I had a herniated L5-S1 disc pressing on the right side sciatic nerve root.  I flew on it for 6 years (3 in fighters, 3 in T-37s) until the pain crippled me.  I had a micro-discectomy done (surgeon recommended a full fusion but I declined in favor of the discectomy) and I'd call it 60-70% successful.  I'm no longer crippled but I still have daily back pain and am told that I'll probably have pain the rest of my life.  But it's good enough that I was back flying the T-37 after 4 months and pulling up to 9 G's within a year.  Not exactly a healthy thing to do, but the surgery halted a steady decline.

Maybe someday I'll go in and see if a fusion will relieve the remaining pain and instability, but for now I can live with it.

That said, back surgery is hit or miss.  Do a lot of research and try to find a surgeon with a high success rate.  Don't go for any experimental treatments.  Just get a discectomy, laminectomy, or even a fusion if necessary, but don't go for anything weird.

[Curval]

lol Nuke.

Thanks guys.  It is feeling a bit better, but then that could be the percocet.

That leg pain is really tough nsty1...I know exactly what you mean.

Eagl - the discetomy is what is being recommended.  I may try it..still undecided.

[GtoRA2]

well, my moms case is special, but what started out as one ruptured, has turned into over 12 neck and back surgeries.  

Most due to the first two being done by a quack, and they way he did them caused others to fail.

[eagl]

Curval,

I found muscle relaxants to be 10 times more effective than narcotics.  I could not get relief using percoset or any other painkiller without going beyond the recommended dosage, however a tab or two of soma each day fixed me right up.  The muscle relaxants are also usually less addictive than the painkillers.

[eskimo2]

I’ve had severe lower back pain for the past few years.  I saw a few doctors and chiropractors; nothing seemed to help much.  One of the chiropractors said that the nerves in the bad disks would eventually wear away in a few years.  Everyone had good advice on exercises that would strengthen my stomach, butt and hamstrings; I did them but nut religiously.  Within the past six months the pain has diminished greatly; it’s only about 20% of what it was a couple of years ago.  I also have not been doing a great job of taking care of myself over the past two months due to our high risk pregnancy.  I’m guessing I wore the nerves off like the chiropractor said.

I’m not advising that you tough it out, but in my case it worked.

I strongly advise getting lots of opinions from different schools of thought.  After trying all lines of traditional medicine, my wife was considering a risky carpel tunnel surgery.  A friend recommended a particular chiropractor and few adjustments to a bad disk in her back fixed it.  I shudder to think that we seriously considered unnecessary surgery that could have done more harm than good.

eskimo

[Toad]

L4-L5 surgery, Curval. A piece of disk had chipped off and was on my sciatic nerve. A simple surgery, small incision, felt better immediately. Almost like new.

Then, 18 months later a dipshirt college kid ran into the back of my car, while I (and a herd of others) were stopped at a red light.

ZAP!  I can feel it again. Not as bad as it was, but certainly aggravating.

I was thinking about going back to the cutter to see what he thought but a few other surgeries got in the way.

[Curval]

Toad, I know I asked before, but what was recovery time again?  How long for each stage?  Hospital stay, recovery at home (the fun part) and then back to work...bearing in mind I'm a bean counter and not exactly physically challenged at work.

(I did get a nasty paper cut last week tho..one of those thick hard cardboard file folders..it was ugly..    )

[Toad]

I was out of the hospital within 48 hours of walking in.

Recovery at home was not too bad. As I said, the pain went away immediately. The pain from the cutting was never bad, Tylenol handled it. I started walking for exercise within a couple of days.

I think start to finish you'd be back at work in less than a week if you wanted to.... if your surgery went as well as mine and there's no guarantee.