[talaine]

...and of course I've got some questions. First of all, this is a great board that I"m thrilled to find. I've been reading and reading and found some really helpful stuff!

I"m a 38 yr old female in TN, USA. I've had back problems for around 5 years that have really gotten bad in the last 2 or 3. I finally started seeking help about a year and a half ago. The orthosurgeon I saw pretty much made light of my issue and felt my DDD at L5/S1 (determined via MRI) was no big deal. He referred me to an anesthesiologist who did help me for a while. But, over 12 injections later, they've now stopped working. I've had regular epidurals, facet injections, and nerve burning twice (RF lesioning). A few months ago I finally moved on to a neurosurgeon who I really like. He did all the regular stuff first (again) to no avail. Finally, about a month ago I had a positive discogram. My neurosurgeon does not do ADR and seems completely unknowledgeable about it as well. He recommends fusion and is ready to operate whenever I want.

My good friend in Atlanta had ADR by Dr. Osborn 2 years ago. I'm trying to work out a date to make that 8 hour drive and go and have a consult with him. I'm also searching for another physician here so that I can have a few opinions. In the meantime, I'm just trying to control my pain which is always there. Sometimes the pain is as low as a 3/10, most of the time it is at a 5-6/10. Pain meds usually control it to a 3/10 (Loratab 10). My pain though wakes me up all night and I also often have pain in my left heel/foot.

Anyway, in my research here, I've seen a couple comments about ADR not being available to those with facet problems. Can anyone elaborate about that? I've looked around on here for more information, but cannot find it. I don't know if I have facet disease or not and am going back to both my neurosurgeon and anesthesiologist this week to ask about it. All I know is that my anesthesiologist has commented that my facets seem bad which is why in the past he has done facet injections. And while injections were helpful in the past, they haven't been lately and my last facet injection 2 months ago did not help at all.

My other question is related to chiropractors. In desperation, I finally went to one last week. He feels he can help me and is manually stretching me out and "spreading apart" my vertebrae in hopes that disc will stop bulging so much and relieve some pain. That seems to make sense and I *think* it may be helping just a bit. But, I wondered what people here think about chiropractors.

I guess that's it for now.

Kindest Regards,

talaine
(Teressa)