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Posted by Cush
In Reply to: I have the same set of symptoms that you described: arthritis of my entire back, stiff, painful as hell and "with me for life". I also had a herniated disk at L4/L5 that had to be removed. posted by Jim
Jim McGowan wrote in message ...
>
>Two bulging and herniated discs in my lumbar spine. After no good results
>from therapy and three epidural shots, I have an appointment with a
>neurosurgeon in four weeks. According to my primary care doc, the most
>likely outcome is surgery (I guess to remove the discs?).
>
>A few questions:
>
>1) Has anyone here had this surgery?
>
Only a few here. If you want to read what hundreds of
people who have had disc surgery have written, go to:
http://neuro-mancer.mgh.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/forumdisplay.cgi
?action=topics&number=92&forum=Spinal+Disorders&DaysPrune=10
&startpoint=0
>2) How long is recovery time?
>
There are now several different kinds of surgery for disc
"decompression." Since we, as patients, tend to be "moths
to the flame of high technology," the surgeons tend to leap
to every new high-tech method of surgery someone can slip
past the FDA, trying to carve out a niche for themselves.
Many of these adventures turn out to be mistakes, as with
the BAK cages for fusions. Recovery times vary
significantly depending on the type of surgery, the
surgeon's skill, and just plain luck. We all want as short
a recovery time as possible, but some surgeons have
abandoned the high-tech micro-discectomy in favor of the
more open "big cut" surgery, for instance, because they can
see better and therefore have gotten better surgery results.
>3) How long will I be incapacitated during the recovery?
>
Could be a few days, could be forever. The surgeons all
claim that they never, or almost never, have a patient whose
surgery fails. But if you go to the spine forums, you will
see dozenss of people living with failed surgeries. Of
course, the successes are all "out playing golf," but still,
something is rotten in the state of spine surgery. There
are just way too many people who are dissatisfied with back
surgery, and it doens't matter what kind or what surgeon.
>4) How painful is the recovery?
>
>I've read about the actual surgery and success rate, but I can't find
>anything that addresses these questions. I know the best advice is to ask
>the neurosurgeon when I see him, but if someone here has firsthand
>experience, I'd really like to hear about it.
>
Actually, they make so much money off doing surgery that
they aren't the best source for accurate answers to these
questions. If you go the above forum, research Iva's
posts, for instance. She was a 21 yr. old college soccer
star who was supposed to get a quick micro-discectomy last
summer ('99) and be back in goal by fall. The surgery
didn't go well. She not only couldn't play soccer last
year, she missed the entire year of school while getting two
follow-up surgeries. She will never play soccer (or be
able to do anything else physical) again, and is now
starting classes with the help of heavy pain drugs. Her
case is not all that unusual, except in degree. Most of us
following people who post results from surgery estimate that
of those who get back surgery from a well-respected surgeon,
about 25% are improved (measured over several years time),
25% are made much worse, and 50% say it was a wash. It may
be that 50% are improved, 25% are worse, and 25% say it is a
wash, but either way, it is a far cry from the success rates
the surgeons are reporting.
I don't think surgery is the answer to most disc problems at
all, but it will be a long time before the surgeons are
convinced of that. The money they make from doing all the
surgeries is astounding.
Good luck. Hope the MGH forum helps.
Cush
http://pages.prodigy.net/cushman4/index.htm . . . G/CS for
OA
http://pages.prodigy.net/cushman4/badback.htm . . .Bad Backs
Page (170 Links)
http://www.iso-trac.com . . . Traction for bad lumbar discs
http://pages.prodigy.net/cushman4/tips.htm . . . Tips for
Newbies to ASA
