For many years I mostly had back pain and stiffness. I remember so many occasions where I couldn't stand up straight because of back stiffness and had only minor leg pain. Over the last two years or so the leg pain has gotten worse and now it's about a 60/40 split with more radiating pain through hips and upper legs.
I had spoken with the Surgeon about testing the discs for pain and he said because my L5-S1 disc is pretty much gone and the L4-5 disc still has some height he would always recommend replacing the L5-S1 disc. He said he doesn't like to send many patients for those disc tests unless they are similarly degenerated on the MRI.
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Problems and pain since 20; currently 45 yr male
MRI 1995 and recently June 2011
L3-4 - Mild disk degeneration with small posterior disk protrusion
L4-5 - Moderate degeneration and moderate size herniation
L5-S1 - Severe Degeneration with small posterior herniation
Physical therapy on 5 occasions over 20 years most recently July 2011
3 steroid injections in 10 month period, no relief from the last one.
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