extensive facet arthosis

[Fontain]

My MRI never reported my facet at l4-l5. Its turns out that my facets are moderate. Thats the pain i still have. If i would have known this info, i would have not had this prodisc. My old MRI said mild so i was in the dark. So my condition will never improve. Anyone else have this and do well?

[ouch2]

Sorry to hear that you are still having pain. I am going to be having adr surgery in February. My biggest concern is that my facets have moderate hypertrophy.My surgeon said that he does ADR's for mild and moderate, but not severe.

I had facet injections a month ago, and I did not get any relief from them so I hope that this is not my pain gernerator. Have you tried facet injections to determine if that is your pain generator?

Hope that you are able to get some relief!

Karen

[ouch2]

Sorry...just read in your signature that you had facet injections.

[janaya3]

Originally Posted by Fontain

My MRI never reported my facet at l4-l5. Its turns out that my facets are moderate. Thats the pain i still have. If i would have known this info, i would have not had this prodisc. My old MRI said mild so i was in the dark. So my condition will never improve. Anyone else have this and do well?

Fontain,

My MRI from Jul 2010 showed some "mild" facet hypertropyh but I don't recall at what level. All other report/images prior to this demonstrated no facet involvement. My neurosurgeon studied the same set of films and definitely said that I was still a good candidate for any artifiicial disc whether it be the Prodisc L or the M6-L...basically whatever I decided on. Of course I decided on the Prodisc L for many reasons both personal and financial.

I started work on November 17, 2011 and shortly thereafter I started having strange bouts of returning aches and discomfort. I was doing terrific and had no complaints up until approx. 2 weeks after I resumed work and while I don't have a laborious job our clinic's patient load had increased due to the holidays and I found myself "catching up" with tons of work that was left for me during my FMLA. Yeah talk about bummer! Everything was great and I was still finishing up PT and joined a gym. I was keeping active and my wife even told me to "slow" down. That is such an understatment as it is difficult in my opinion especially with so much going on. Currently I am having bouts of unexplainable pains ableit nothing like before my surgery but still a cause for concern. My immediate assumption and worse case scenario is my facets are probably acting up. I attempted to contact my neurosurgeon through his Nurse Practitioner (NP) and found out that she is pretty much useless and not helpful at all. I am to the point were I am going to contact him personally via e-mail or a page as we work in and for the same hospital system. I had previous issues with his NP not returning my calls during my actual medical leave and not following through on certain things. I understand the complexity and high demands of working in the health care field-- I myself am a Clinical Pharmacist-- so if I can do it and take the time out of my busy schedule to call back our patients, then it is no excuse for his NP not to extend the same courtesy.

I am probably gonna discuss the possibility of doing a Myelography study of my spine, MRI and/or CT scan to rule out my facet joint as a source of a pain generator with my neurosurgeon-- just to be on the safe side, if I ever get around to speaking to him. Almost 1 & 1/2 years ago a Pain Management Specialist--Anesthesiolgist, did a few trials of facet joint corticosteroid injections and it was honestly difficult to assess whether I had a "optimal" response or any response or whether or not the facets caused me any issues at all. At this point my discogenic pain was at its worst and I was willing to try anything! Because I was so desperate and my back was literally killing me I underwent a Water Cooled Radiofrequency Nerve Ablation or rhizotomy of my L3-S1 facet nerves. Again in my opinion the procedure didn't do a thing for my pain. I still felt the pain after the procedure.

I am probably sure my neurosurgeon is going to tell me to wait a few more months and probably scale back on everything I am currently doing. I actually rested all this week with the exception of Mon & Tue and most of the aches and pains are subsiding however I still need answers such as why this is occuring. Basically I need to know if this is how I am "supposed" to be healing or do I really have something else going on. On December 25, 2011 I will be officially 4 month post-op so who knows if I am overdoing it or not! My wife, family and friends all tell me to give myself and body more time.....at least 6 months or so. I only wish I could.

[Fontain]

I know lots of people that have double fusion that do great. Myself i feel i would have feared better to have that l4-l5 level fused. The PA kept telling me to have the double fusion you will do great. I think he know that my facet would or could cause me a problem with the prodisc. He see's the before and after with patients, i do not. I do understand that with the double fusion that you will feel more stiff but so what if it takes the pain away. Just my thoughts and also i have read pleople doing well with prodisc that had moderate facets too. So whatever right. Thank you guys for your responce. Good luck on your up coming surgery, it will go well!

Anthony

[annapurna]

I don't wish to suggest that you pursue this or plan on their use but you should be aware that there are facet replacements out there being used. They're where ADRs were about 15 to 20 years ago so it's probably a bad idea to plan your surgical solution around needing them but, if you do try ADR and guess wrong, they are there.

There's also some speculation about using stem cell techniques to reverse early stage damage to the facets. If they were diagnosed as being moderately damaged based on osteophyte formation, that isn't going to help. If they meant they were moderately damaged based on the remaining cartilage thickness and degree of inflammation, stem cell techniques might help.

[Fontain]

Originally Posted by janaya3

Fontain,

My MRI from Jul 2010 showed some "mild" facet hypertropyh but I don't recall at what level. All other report/images prior to this demonstrated no facet involvement. My neurosurgeon studied the same set of films and definitely said that I was still a good candidate for any artifiicial disc whether it be the Prodisc L or the M6-L...basically whatever I decided on. Of course I decided on the Prodisc L for many reasons both personal and financial.

I started work on November 17, 2011 and shortly thereafter I started having strange bouts of returning aches and discomfort. I was doing terrific and had no complaints up until approx. 2 weeks after I resumed work and while I don't have a laborious job our clinic's patient load had increased due to the holidays and I found myself "catching up" with tons of work that was left for me during my FMLA. Yeah talk about bummer! Everything was great and I was still finishing up PT and joined a gym. I was keeping active and my wife even told me to "slow" down. That is such an understatment as it is difficult in my opinion especially with so much going on. Currently I am having bouts of unexplainable pains ableit nothing like before my surgery but still a cause for concern. My immediate assumption and worse case scenario is my facets are probably acting up. I attempted to contact my neurosurgeon through his Nurse Practitioner (NP) and found out that she is pretty much useless and not helpful at all. I am to the point were I am going to contact him personally via e-mail or a page as we work in and for the same hospital system. I had previous issues with his NP not returning my calls during my actual medical leave and not following through on certain things. I understand the complexity and high demands of working in the health care field-- I myself am a Clinical Pharmacist-- so if I can do it and take the time out of my busy schedule to call back our patients, then it is no excuse for his NP not to extend the same courtesy.

I am probably gonna discuss the possibility of doing a Myelography study of my spine, MRI and/or CT scan to rule out my facet joint as a source of a pain generator with my neurosurgeon-- just to be on the safe side, if I ever get around to speaking to him. Almost 1 & 1/2 years ago a Pain Management Specialist--Anesthesiolgist, did a few trials of facet joint corticosteroid injections and it was honestly difficult to assess whether I had a "optimal" response or any response or whether or not the facets caused me any issues at all. At this point my discogenic pain was at its worst and I was willing to try anything! Because I was so desperate and my back was literally killing me I underwent a Water Cooled Radiofrequency Nerve Ablation or rhizotomy of my L3-S1 facet nerves. Again in my opinion the procedure didn't do a thing for my pain. I still felt the pain after the procedure.

I am probably sure my neurosurgeon is going to tell me to wait a few more months and probably scale back on everything I am currently doing. I actually rested all this week with the exception of Mon & Tue and most of the aches and pains are subsiding however I still need answers such as why this is occuring. Basically I need to know if this is how I am "supposed" to be healing or do I really have something else going on. On December 25, 2011 I will be officially 4 month post-op so who knows if I am overdoing it or not! My wife, family and friends all tell me to give myself and body more time.....at least 6 months or so. I only wish I could.

I know everyone would tell you its to early yet but its true. Give it the full six months. You should feel a little better buy then. I had a MRI at 4 month post op and was looking good. Since im thin, images from SAX look good. My doc told me that once and a while patients that get a prodisc facet just get huge post surgery. Thats why they did the MRI just in case. Why on this site dont patient show there MRI images more so we can see there facet and disc disease? Then we can compair what mild, moderate looks like. So people can get a better understanding of what the pathology looks like. So if i have moderate facet and my prodisc is a failure, then someone with my facet disease MRI images might be a failure to. Like a Q and A. We need to start sharing images. This site needs to improve on that image posting stuff. We as patient need to get more technical.

Hope you have a nice holiday. If you would like to take sometime about this i can be a big help. I have never talk to a prodisc patient on a live call. When i needed help, Harrison said someone would call me and know one did. Im not that cruel, but i would not do that to anyone in need. I was once a cardiac Sonographer and i went above and beyond for patients. One good thing is at lease my insur. paid for my surgery.