Anyone had successful treatment for DDD at L4-L5?

[fayeW]

I am 33 and have DDD at L4/L5. The pain is pretty bad- the worst part is that the pain is throughout my whole back- I'm assuming muscular because thoracic/cervical MRI was fine. The docs want me to be part of a clinical trial where I either get a disc replacement or this new Nubac surgery- which is not FDA approved. I am scared of getting surgery but am fed up with the pain. Can anyone relate??

[Harrison]

Faye, welcome to our community, sorry you are here. I hope we can help in some small way. So, right back at you: how bad is your pain? How is your quality of life? Hos degenerated is the L4-5 disc?

When you can, please visit the User CP and add a signature which briefly describes your spine condition. I know it's a pain; but it will help us help you....

[fayeW]

Thanks for the response!!! I am not sure how degenerated the disc is. My doctor sent me for an MRI and then gave me a call and told me to schedule a discogram on L4/L5. After I had that done, I got a call and was told that I can be part of a clinical trial and have disc replacement surgery. In the MRI picture, the disc looked black, while all the other ones looked white. During the discogram, the doctor told me that when they injected dye into the disc, it leaked out both sides right away (and caused severe pain in the lower back).

So, my doctors told me that they don't recommend fusion....I had already been in PT for 6 mos but didn't know what the real problem was at the time- I didn't find any lasting relief and the chiro made the pain worse. My pain is constant and usually ranges between level 4 to 6 pain. I know I have a lot of muscle spasms going on in my back and pain in by shoulders and mid back. I also have mild to moderate scoliosis. I'm scared of disc replacement surgery, but don't know what else might help...

[Tami67]

Hi FayeW,
I am new here so please excuse any faux pas I may make : ). I had a nubac adr in 2005. I was supposedly in my orthopedic surgeons trial study. I lost my job as a business ofc. assistant, 6 mos. after my surgery due to "inability to do my job in a timely fashion". Consequently, I also lost my bc/bs ins. He was/is supposed to see me at least once a year pretty much forever.

Well, he saw me a few times after I lost my insurance and then , boom, the next time I called to make an appointment, I was told that my doctor would no longer see me because of unpaid bills, even though I had informed the Dr. of this and he told me "we would figure something out". I also recently found a warning letter from the FDA to my doc stating that he failed to put all the pertinent information in his consent forms. I apparently was very disillusioned about the outcome of my ADR. I have several more discs that have ruptured, are bulging, some pressing on nerve roots, some on the spinal column itself. I do have DDD but these new ones have all developed since having the ADR. I have also since been diagnosed with fibromyalgia (oh, goody!), depession, anxiety, arthritis.

I was also told by a neurosurgeon 5, yes, 5!, years later that there are fragments of the old disc "floating" around AND the bone did not"heal correctly" around the ad. I was given this information after having a myelogram. The Dr. who did my adr has been telling me all this time that everything healed perfectly and that I should not be experiencing the level of pain that I am, to the point of sending me to a gynecologist, saying that that must be "the source of the pain". The gyno I was sent to, agreed, told me I had a big spongy uterus that was pushing on my spine so I endured yet another surgery, partial hysterectomy (uterus & cervix), which almost killed me.

Two wks after the hysterectomy, my husband was due to make an anonymous bone marrow donation which we had to travel approx 6 hours to get to. I called the gyno to see if it was alright to travel that far because there were a couple of minor complications (bladder infection & a couple of stitches had pulled apart a little, approx 3 days after surgery), he told me to come in so I did, he asked me a couple questions,did NO pelvic and told me, no problem, so we made the trip. The Bone Marrow Center put us up in a beautiful historic, (which makes this story even worse & more embarrassing)downtown motel. I promptly started hemorrhaging at 5:00 am. Ended up getting 11 units of blood and having to have "emergency vaginal repair" surgery.

If you have any questions for me please feel free. I will try to help you as much as possible. Good luck & good thoughts to you. Btw, forgot to mention that my ortho also invented the nubac.

[Harrison]

Hi Tami,

Thx for posting, sorry you are here though! Just so you know, the post you replied to is about 2 years old; so I don't know if Faye will reply. Really sorry about your situation. Perhaps we should start a topic separately for you -- just want to give you the chance to get support specific to your situation.