Hello everyone
 

Hi just signing in and introducing myself!

I'm 32 and from the UK, after injuring my back in 2013 at the gym it came back to bite me on the backside last August.

Since then I've tried to recover with conservative treatments, chiropractic care, yoga, swimming etc etc and seem to be going one step forward and a few back as the months go by.

From my research I feel my options are either carry on "treading water" and hoping things improve as the months go by, or look at ADR surgery assuming I'm a candidate.

After the incident in August last year I recovered well, mobility was good and I started working again, since my second incident last year in October life has never been the same,

Since October I've not worked, feel "broken" and like an old man, I have sciatica in both legs but mainly the left, however not so much painful, just loss of sensation to my feet and a bruised feeling if my calves/backs of legs are pressed with my fingers etc. My main issue is pain in my back, not strong but always there, and lack of mobility (old man feeling), I'm scared to bend down and use my feet where possible, I have also recently started experiencing some hip pain (I had a twisted hip as diagnosed by the chiropractor which has been slowly rectified).

If I do too much one day I spend the next few days mainly in bed feeling sore/broken - However I've not needed any pain killers since last year which is positive! However today is the worst day for pain in several months by a significant amount and pain killers may be needed, this has pushed me to join this group and research ADR surgery more, as I just feel I won't recover otherwise.

So that's my reason for joining the forum, to be a part of the community, research, swap information, and assuming I don't improve naturally to some degree to get some new discs in my back!! :)

Welcome bfdfix,

I am sure you will find a lot of useful information on this forum. I take it that you would have surgery in the UK, since there are plenty of spine surgeons there? I think we have quite some people who had surgery in the UK on this forum. Recently I read the post by user "Hooch", you may want to check that one out...

I heard Martin Knight may be someone worth contacting, do you know him? Getting a clear good diagnosis is the key here. Spending even a few k on that may be worth it, since surgery is a one-way-street anyway. You gotta get it right the first time!

Hi Blizzaga thanks for the info

I'm happy to have surgery anywhere in Europe where I have faith in the surgeon and the price is affordable really, I've mainly come across surgeons in Germany to Clavel in Spain so have made contact with them.

I did speak with Zeegers on the phone yesterday who was pretty clear on how to move forward with things, but I was abit concerned about his 930 euro fee if I didn't end up using him as a surgeon.

I'll have a read up/contact on those names thanks very much! I have a confirmed bulge on L4/5 and protrusion on L5/S1 so I'm hoping with added X rays this will be enough to get an idea on what's possible.

Unfortunately I did a very small amount of diy a few days ago and have had fairly severe pain return in my lower back (the worst in several months) but absolutely no increased sciatica, so I'm praying this is to do with the already damaged discs and not a new one......

Hi again...

So I ended up with an ambulance being called for me last week and I went to hospital after I did some very light diy the week before, I felt sore in my lower back afterwards until week later my back started to violenty spasm repeatedly for maybe 20 minutes, I was screaming in pain and I think this was definitely the worst pain and after effects since my original symptoms of disc problems last August.

I'm currently housebound and afer 5 days I've finally felt some signs of improvement, since the incident until now if I tried to walk my back kept on trying to "give in" and I would have dropped to the floor if I wasn't hanging onto things, I've now started to walk a little in the house.

Anyway I've been going through this for a short time compared to many, but after this latest incident I'm clearly not getting better, which when my mri results aren't so bad on paper is pretty disheartening.

What to do? Carry on with my life on hold hoping things will actually improve? (I want to be able to travel, see more of the world and I'm stuck in my city waiting, I feel as I am there's no way at all I'd feel comfortable travelling).

Or at 32 have ADR, remove my discs and take the "no going back" step and have the chance of a good outcome, and get on with my life, knowing from that point I have manufactured discs inside me at 32 and I have to keep my faith in the research and design that they will last for a significant portion of my life.

Any advice is greatly appreciated, although I'm well aware that any decision is for me to make!!! :)

Hi bfdfix,

I feel you as i am on the same boat where i have the worse nightmare last year. I have been having back problem on my L5S1 since 2010 where i injured myself pulling and push some heavy metal crate around the work. Think about it, really feel myself stupid and it took about six month to covered. So i am good to be back to gym and do whatever i want. Then out of nowhere, i relapsed my problem again on 2012 and i took another 6-9 month to rehab and i am back to normal again. I am thinking maybe i am young during that time and the damage was not serious and the DDD was not that bad. So after many years later since 2010, i think it slowing turning to DDD badly and the tear was getting bigger and bigger although, it was heal with scar tissue which is still weaker than before. So the worse happened on 2010 DEC while i lift dish washer and dryer into my car. After a week or two, i started to get worse and worse. I can't even walk and lift 1L of milk. I went to start rehab by my spine DR for 9 month and my condition improved. Although, it has improve but i still can't bend and lift more than 4kg. My sitting and walking improve but i still can't work my job as a service tech. So my Spine Dr suggest a discogram and see what happen on that disc. If it heal, i think the dye should be contain within the annular but it did not as CT show the annular is totally torn and dye leak into the surface. This conclude that if i load my spine with weight it will cause pain and unstable condition there. But if i am not doing anything, just resting, moving and sitting then my pain level is just 1. So i believe, some spine condition can heal and some like my case it did not heal anymore. So you can find out with discogram then you will know what your option of getting your life back. It is tough road, and we are on the same boat to support each other.

bfdfix, that sounds like a terrible event! I hope you are already feeling a bit better. I can feel for your want to get better and be able to travel. Being stuck housebound in-pain is no life...

I took the "no going back" step and I am even younger than you are. While I also, naturally, wonder what will happen in the future, I am still living my life happy for now. Life is not eternal anyway, so no point wasting it in-pain lying in the bed. At least if one has a choice...

Thanks for the replies I appreciate it, donmas the discogram is certainly a good idea to be able to see if the discs are actually leaking.

Blizzaga yep I totally agree, we don't know what's going to happen in life going forward regardless do we? I see you also didn't wait too long between damage and surgery, tried the usual conservative treatments and felt you were getting nowhere.

Didn't you just think well I better wait x amount of months longer, knowing people "apparently" can recover well? In my heart of hearts I don't think I'm going to get better, and as I think most will pretty much know on here, any "recovery" without ADR or fusion isn't really what I class as permanent recovery anyway, just until the next time!

I've just looked in the mirror today and realised my body is completely twisted to one side, I have a severe lateral shift from reading up, one popular cause of this is the body trying to protect itself by shifting itself away from disc damage, so I'd say it's pretty clear a disc has redamaged itself, three separate incidents in 8 months, ADR looks so appealing at the moment :)

Hi bfdfix,

Seem like you are worse than me, i will not want to keep fighting this way in my life as we cannot turn back the clock. Time in life will be wasted in our condition and if we can get better and enjoy life. Then this will be a way to live without thinking what furture will bring if the condition is not better or worse. I am currently looking at LP-ESP, which i think is a good prosthesis. From there, you will need to find a surgeon that do the prosthesis that you like and go from there. If cost and time work fine then book the appointment for surgery and put the rest to GOD HAND. Try your best to get in best shape before you going into the surgery. Sure, put you at better mind stage than now. I hope, you will find out soon about what you want to do and what purpose make you decide the surgery route. I am doing it for myself as well as my kids and wife as they need a daddy that can work and bring food on the table. The rest like will you able to do high impact sport again, i will not really want to worry that as it is not the main purpose in life if you cannot even feed yourself and family. GOD will sure bring us some light in this dark tunnel....

Donmas my last mri result wasn't so bad actually, small bulge & herniation, but it didn't feel that way, and after last week I believe things have changed :eek2:

Yes I'm also looking at the LP-ESP as my favourite disc :) I don't like the M6 so much, I mean it's clearly got good points, but I believe the LP-ESP to be better, the Freedom disc is possibly better than both, but hasn't been around long enough and tested.

Blizzaga I see you have the ActivL I've thought about this disc too and it's a possibility for me, older but tried and tested :) Also good if a revision is needed later, and many sizes of disc to choose from.

I was thinking last night that before my last episode I was seriously considering ADR, so after last week I really need to do something, as I just think if I leave it then in 6 months time nothing will have changed positively...

Hi bfdfix,

You might want to check this guy out " https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81ZUg7OMaMU" from youtube and his name is Michael Walls. I did join his facebook and talk to him. Well, about my surgeon as he speak highly about LP-ESP and he has implant more than 300 so far. All feedback so far so good, but we still need to do our homework. Good luck !!!