New Member- Need Advice
 

I am a fit healthy 54 year old with increasing lower back pain and increasingly unhappy with the limits it places on my physical life. Standing is the worst, more than 30 minutes I get in trouble, 1 hour can send spasm/lay me up.

Diagnosed desiccated disk L4,5. w/mild stenosis. I am told I am an ideal candidate for TDR, since single level, my good health and my spine and and all other disks in great shape. My doc does ProDisk.

Is my situation severe enough and upside great enough to justify the risk, pain and suffering of an operation of this magnitude?

I do desperately want my physical life back I am a very young 54! yet know this is no guarantee....this is a difficult decision!

Thank goodness you came here first. Just my opinion, but there are better options than the Prodisc out there now. I would seek out the opinion of others, specifically the international doctors mentioned so often on this site. The US is now offering the Activ L as well, which everyone says is a great disc.

Do your homework Iamthesj, the surgeon is a heckuva lot more important than the appliance going in IMHO.
I had 3 level ADR and a Mobility Preservation Cage put in by Bertagnoli in GmbH. He uses ProDisc and I had them done Dec 1. I am back on my mtn bike as I am a VERY young 59 and love extreme biking.
I went through the same questions as I could 'function' without painkillers but was definitely harming the nerves in my legs. I am slowly eliminating the pain in my hip which is actually the harmed nerve slowly healing up. Pretty happy so fare and most of the distraction pain is gone...

Steve, glad you posted. Welcome. I hope we can help you with your next steps.

BTW, check out the hundreds of surgical outcomes -- they go all the way back to 2004, when I had my ADR.