Referred to a Surgeon

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Here's a summary of my background:

- 1992 - fusion w/rods for scoliosis

- 1996 - injured back in dance class; sudden, severe pain that wouldn't go

away

- 1997 - partial removal of the rods - doctor thought they were causing the

pain - didn't help

- 1997 - pain determined to be caused by herniated disc; microdiskectomy

performed; reduced pain for a while but worsened within a year

- 1996-2000 - tried medications, TENS unit, physical therapy, and

selective nerve root blocks, each with some success, but never enough

- 2000 - gave up on my doctors, stopped all my meds, and stopped going to

appointments; managed my pain myself for eight years just using traditional

methods (ice, heat, rest, motrin, etc.)

- 2008 - pain suddenly worsened; could barely walk around

- 2009 - MRI showed two herniated discs, one torn, and other degeneration -- all

in my lumbar spine

- 2008 - tried various medications (tramadol, codeine, vicodin,

neurontin, lyrica, topomax, baclofen, tizanidine).

PT, aquatic therapy, TENS, selective nerve root blocks, piriformis (trigger

point) injections

- Now - pain has been worsening over the past few months

The summary above leads me up to my appointment (with my pain management doctor)

yesterday. He changed my meds a bit, but said

that the worsening pain was concerning, and that my 2009 MRI already showed a

lot of things going wrong in my lumbar spine.

He is scheduling me for a new MRI and has referred me to a neurosurgeon. I am

terrified of the idea of having surgery

again. I'm 30 years old and this would be my fourth back surgery.

But at this point, I'm not sure what else to do. I haven't made up

my mind yet. I want to gather as much information as possible, so I can made an

educated, rather than an emotional, decision regarding how to move forward.

Have any of you dealt with herniated lumbar discs below an existing fusion?

How have your physicians dealt with this problem (other than medications)?

If you are in the Boston area or are familiar with the surgeons here, is there

anyone you could recommend?

I've been referred to a neurosurgeon at New England Baptist. But there are so

many other hospitals here, that the possibilities are practically endless.

I will meet with the surgeon to whom my pain management doctor referred me, but

I will definitely be getting a second, and possibly even a third, opinion as

well.

Thanks,