Thanks Harrison! Yes, I have spent countless hours reading posts on this site as well as material on other sites. Not much else to do in the middle of the night when you can't sleep
.
Since insurance won't pay for the ADR surgery (Blue Cross Blue Shield), I opted to try for the Axiomed clinical trial. I went from Houston to Dallas last Friday (7/9/10) to meet with Dr. Guyer at the Texas Back Institute in Plano. Let me just say that he and his staff are AMAZING! It was a long, emotional, roller coaster ride of a day with, "Yes, you are a candidate", "No, you're not", yes, no...and finally YES at 6 pm! I got the last spot out of 300. Guess it was my lucky day
. They were so awesome and nice that they even came in on their day off on Saturday to do my paperwork so I could get back to Houston. Today, Monday 7/12/10, I got a phone call that he had a cancellation this Thursday 7/15/10, so I took it. That gives me one day to pack up, prepare and hit the road tomorrow on Tuesday. YIKES
! Talk about a wide range of emotions. I am soooooo scared, excited, nervous...you name it, I'm it!
I just wanted to post my experience and progress here in hopes that it can help someone else as my reading other peoples posts helped me
. Back pain is a lot more than physical and it helps to know that other people are dealing with the same thing you are. It's the only way I was able to keep my sanity
.
FYI - some of my background: I first had back pain 4 years ago (at 29). I was very physically fit, active and had a demanding job as a superintendant building new homes (and yes, I'm a girl). My back would hurt and I would rest up on the weekend and it would go away. After awhile it started to interfere with my job so I quit
. A little over a year ago I tried to stop a four wheel dolly from tipping over and it has been nonstop pain ever since. Smart move sister
. I had 6 ESIs in 5 months and an IDET procedure in Dec. '09 at L4-L5 (was successful). Discogram 3 weeks ago showed no pain anymore from that disc but L5-S1 was so bad I tried to jump off the table screaming profanities
. Oooops! It's a good thing I was strapped down (except for the fact that I pulled all of my neck muscles)
.
Sorry, I must admit...I love the smilies
