Newbie here

[Guest guest]

Hi,

I'm new, have been lurking for a couple of weeks.

I'm impressed at the sharing in this group. It's pretty damn lonely

when you have a really bad back.

My story: Had a disk fusion at C6/C7 in 2001, had another disk

fusion at L4/L5 last September. I'm currently 49 yo, and my problem

is inherited spinal stenosis, early degenerative disk disease, and

arthritis.

It took me years to get a good answer to my neck pain, and,

unfortunately, the herniated disk had compressed my spinal cord and

done some damage which has remained permanent. I drop things alot,

and have lost some sensory function in my arms and hands. I learned

from that experience that when you have severe pain in your neck or

back, you really have to *insist* that the doc order an MRI.

My lower back pain started a couple of years ago, and I was treated

by a neurologist and a pain management group before I got refered to

the neurosurgeon. I tried everything: meds, epidural shots, radio

frequency denervation, acupuncture, massage, PT. Bottom line was,

the herniated disk between L4 and L5 was completely squished out,

and I had a bone-on-bone situation. Hence, the fusion.

As far as pain relief went, the fusion in my neck was immediate

relief. It wasn't too hard to get recovered either. Actually, the

incision where they took the bone graft from my hip was much more

painful than the incision on my neck.

Different story for the lumbar fusion. I was amazed and taken aback

at how difficult the recovery was. It was a solid month before the

pain from the procedure abated. In addition, I had been quite

depressed before the surgery and became extremely depressed after

the surgery. My docs put me into a partial hospitalization program

for the depression when I was 6 weeks out of the back surgery. I

had to go there everyday for a couple of weeks. But it really

helped get my depression back under control.

I started back to work in December. I am a geologist who works at a

microscope, so I figured it would be OK. I have a very

ergonomically correct workspace. However, by the end of January,

alot of my sciatic pain was back. The docs agreed to do another

epidural injection. It held me through Feb., most of March, but now

I'm into mid-April, and I'm back to the same old painful place.

The problem is, both the disk above and especially the disk below my

fused disk were problematic even before the surgery. I'm afraid

that L5/S1 is getting worse now, which is probably being caused by

the additional pressure after the fusion.

So, I'm not a happy camper. If there's one thing we are all in the

process of finding out, having a bad back means you are on a long,

long journey.

Cheers everyone. Marsha, don't worry. Forewarned is forearmed.

You are better off being prepared for the difficulty.

in town, PA