OldGuy

A couple people have asked. So I thought I would post an update on my back.
Last Friday I visited a surgeon in SoCal who is supposed to work wonders. He looked at my MRI and Xrays. He deemed my first operation worthless. His plan is to remove all the hardware that is in my back, then go in through the front and replace L5/S1 L5/L4 with mechanical discs. My wife was all excited because she is saying " we can get you fixed!! You can get fixed!!!"

Well if you have had a back operation you know its nothing to be excited about. I have been put on disability from work and I have to retire with a disability retirement. I am working on another project that is so cool its beyond belief however I am pretty devastated by the prospect of going through it all again.

But it looks like thats the path I am on, so thats whats going to happen. I have to have a discogram, then some operation where I am awake and the doc prods into my spine and asks me if that hurts? (Let me poke HIM in the spine and see if THAT hurts!!!!) Then an operation to remove my flexible fusion (He said think about it, its supposed to fuse and hold your spine but its FLEXIBLE?)
then the operation to drill in two replacement discs on the lower spine.

OH goody.

RollingArt

Yeeooouch !!! Good luck with that.

Here's the funny part. When I brought up your thread, the banner add at the top of the page was for the "Laser Spine Institute". Hmmm.

Again, good luck and I hope this brings you some relief.





Phil

tripleblack

Good luck OG. What they can do today is nothing short of amazing.

firefisher

Oldguy,
I was supposed to have the same back surgery as the one in your future. They gave me two disco-gram's . First wasn't too bad ( I probable forget the pain). Second was the most painful experience in my life. One is enough. Each time its preformed it weakens the disc's in the back. They were going to replace L-5 S-1 with a titanium disc thru the stomach. At the last minute ( 2 weeks before the scheduled surgery), my doctor and I decided on a microdiscectomy. 3-4 months after the surgery I was pissed that I did not have the disc replacement because the pain was still severe.
Go buy this book and read it " Healing Back Pain" by John E. Sarno. I thought it was BS and it did not make any sense. But it got me thinking. The key is to think positive and try and forget the pain and do physical activities. Start out light and work your way up. I still have back pain and it will never go away no matter what they or I do, but you have to go about life and enjoy it. Think positive and don't let the pain control your life.

Good Luck,
George

stujelly

Hope that works out. I see your in the desert, maybe our paths will cross at willow springs, or something seeing that i live in bakersfield.

Take care.

Land Jet

Good luck with this. Hope it sets you right and frees you from all pain.

OldGuy

THanks. ONe thing that makes it better is the extreme foresight and pureness of heart that is helping me by employing me on special projects. It allows me to work from home and have a TON of fun.
I wont mention his name because he wants to stay unknown. But this guy is unbelievable. It makes all this
bearable. Without him I would be toast.

911GT3

As someone who has performed many discograms, I can tell you the concept seems to be absurd: "Sir/maam, I am going to try to reproduce your pain." Ahh, ..,. WHY?"

In experienced hands, the procedure has definite purpose. Remember, imaging alone only tells us what is where, i.e. anatomy--it doesn't give any information on physiology. There are many times when a prominent disc is seen towards the left on an MRI, only to find the patient has pain on the right. The more pieces of info we have that supports a surgical procedure's value, the more likely the outcome will be positive. Sometimes it is obvious: a patient has a lightning bolt shooting down his left leg. A physical exam by a neurologist/neurosurgeon/orthopedic surgeon shows what should be a problem with a leftward herniated disc at L-5, S-. An MRI confirms it. That is usually enough to go to surgery. But sometimes a discogram is needed to purposely aggravate or instigate a questionable disc to see if the same pain is reproduced. If it is, that is one more piece of information supporting fixing the disc surgically (assuming physical therapy has not helped, or the disease is significant enought to warrant surgery). In some cases, the results of a discogram may suggest the intended surgery may not have the outcome desired.

That being said, I am happy that I have hired partners who do all of the discograms, allowing me to concentrate on other areas of my practice I enjoy more. In other words, I prefer not to purposely cause pain. But, I understand the need to do so. Do your best to have it done by experienced hands. I had done hundreds before I stopped, and my partners have done even more.

Good luck. I hope you are back in your car ASAP.

OldGuy

Well I appreciate your help 911GT3. One thing I appreciated the Doc told me. He is a neurosurgeon. L4/L3 looks perfect. Typically he would use that for a control disc. For those of you not scientifically inclinded, that is the disc they know is good, and puncture it to see how the good disc reacts to the punture. Then they puncture the bad discs to see how they cause pain. MY surgeon said that he will NOT touch that disc. He will not endanger my good discs. I thought that was pretty thoughtful. He is only going to examine the suspect discs.

911GT3 How long after that do we have to wait to proceed before we go on to the next and final procedures AND what do you think of these disc implants? There is a plastic substance that gets locked in place with some TORX screws Or the disc is titanium and locked in place with a lock nut?

911GT3

My practice has been predominately vascular and oncologic for the past 13 years, thus have no direct experience with disc implants. As for the gap between diagnosis and treatment, it is really case-dependent. Many patients will get a 6 month trial of physical therapy, however in your case, having had previous surgery, the algorithm can be very different. You have me interested now in disc implants, and I will post any info I come across after speaking with my neurosurgical and ortho colleagues. Good luck to you.

911GT3

Almost forgot--nice car list!

P.J.S.

I wish you the best of luck with this Paul... if all goes well then you are back in a gt3 ;-)

FTS

Paul, thank you for the update, I wish you the very best and pray for you that all will go well and better than ever.

OldGuy

Thanks guys. i would love to have the back to get back in a GT3!!! And Back to the Track

911GT3 lets keep in touch to see what we can see.. My Doc was telling me thee are two options
one is the disc inmplant with some type of plastic, the other with a Titanium dics. I will ty to get the info and post it here.

adam_

I work in this area as well. You MOST DEFINITELY need a second or third opinion.

You should be aware that many patients do NOT get pain relief after surgery- even with discograms showing the disc is painful. (This forum is not the place to discuss this, but there is new data on pain sources..)

There are so many different opinions, I caution you to step carefully. You are talking a two level artificial disc, which I am pretty sure has not been approved by FDA and for which little data exist.