New to the forum
 

Hello everyone my name is Brian.

I'm 25 years old and have had 2 herniated discs at L4/L5 and L5/S1 for almost 3 years now. My pain has always been on the left side (mostly in the foot) and I have done just about every non-surgical treatment thats available, untill recently. On 7/19/10 I had a micro discsectomy which did make my foot pain alittle better but a recent MRI show that the herniation is still 5mm.

Im in pain but I can manage for the time being, I'm just afraid of doing more damage to the nerve. Im debating a revision micro D. I just do not want to get fusion and I am not a canidate for ADR and dont think I will be ( as far as insurance covering it) for a few years. Im just trying to get to a spot where I can have somewhat of an active lifestyle without the constant pain, and stop any further damage to my nerves.

If anyone has any pain tips or suggestion for me I would greatly appreciate it.
Thanks, Brian

Brian -

I am sorry to hear you are having such pain. I have 13 years experience with chronic back pain, back research, all types of therapies, meds, etc... So I empathize!

Nerve pain can be from a number of things. For example, the disc itself has nerves which are pain generators, facets joints, stenosis, etc ...

I am wondering if you had a discogram before your surgery to see if your pain could be re-produced? Would it be both discs, one disc, no disc but something different, etc ...

If it were me, I would try hard to find the pain source, confirm it, then see what options exist. If surgery, yes, ADR. I would look at all the clinical trials available if I had financial issues (clinicaltrials.gov), or find a center willing to do it and work out a payment plan.

Postponing it until insurance may approve is a tough option. they may never approve or the fight itself will kill you first :) There are many medications, many for nerve pain if you want to manage it until it becomes a point of life enjoyment and function vs taking your best shot. My personal feeling is once you disc is truly herniated with a annular tear, everything just manages it, but they don't heal, and everything after that is a question of function-ability vs your best fix option. Find the true source of the pain and remove it.

I hope the best for you.

Ken

Well I know for sure the pain is coming for the L5/S1. I actually had very very little pain from the L4/L5, and some decompression on the DRX machine helped that. Its too bad that they wont do a multi level ADR, and it would take me 10 years to save enough to goto germany...probably be too late by then.:( But has anyone been in a similar situation and just had the worse of the 2 discs replaced?

I guess for now I might have to settle for another microdiscsectomy, and hope this one works. And pray to God that it will at least buy me a few years, or I guess even a few months would be better than the first time around :D