[Can\'t_Sit]

First off I'd like to say thank you to Harrison and everyone for the wonderful information on this site!

I am 36 yrs young and I have had back pain for the last ten years. A few years ago, I was diagnosed with DDD in L4/L5 and since then I also have DDD in L5/S1 with a bulge.

I have SI joint pain, lower back pain, and some radiating pain in the thighs. It hurts to sit and lie down. I feel great when I walk.

I have had four nerve block shots (2 on L4/L5, L5/S1, and on the SI joint), tried PT (exercises, traction, and the TENS machine), and medicine (percocet, valium, oxycodone, gabapentin, etc) but they all relieved the pain for a little while and then stopped.

My othopedic surgeon mentioned fusion but said that he didn't recommended it. He said my best bet was to travel to Europe for ADR, because the only insurance that covered ADR was for Federal employees. However, I see that my insurance (Aetna) does cover it as of late November.

He says that he is going in for training on ADR very soon. Since he hasn't done any, I'm researching other places that perform the procedure. There are a few close places that do the Charite disc but I'd like to look into the ProDisc, since there is a possibility that I'll need multilevels. I'm in North Carolina.

I'm thinking that my best bet is to look into TBI, since it sounds like they have a good reputation.

My othropedic surgeon wants me to do a discogram to find out which disk(s) create the pain. Should I have his office do it or TBI (which would require another trip to Texas)?

I'm not looking forward to the discogram because I think I got a feel for the pain that I am going to feel when they did my L5/S1 nerve block. I think they hit a nerve or the disk itself. I hurt so bad that I screamed out an obsentity and I rarely swear. I wasn't prepared for that pain since the other nerve block shots didn't hurt.

Any help that you can give me is appreciated.

Thank you.
Paula