[Betseyj]

I am 19 years old and have had disc degeneration and herniation in L4/5 and L5-S1 since I was 15. I am tired of being in pain. I am a very high achiever and feel like my back pain is holding me back. I have tried physical therapy, meditation, acupuncture, core strengthening through swimming and pilates and nucleoplasty. Some have made small improvements for a short time but the pain always comes back. My pain is mostly in my low back it is constant aching, soreness and hurts. I occasionally have pain that radiates down my legs and will also have good days or really bad days of pain.

I go to college and attend about 16hrs of class a week and take vicodin to do so and rest the other time. I am going to have to enter the work force soon and I want to be able to be competitive in my job and at least work a full work week. I have seen two surgeons who both tell me my spine will continue to degenerate and that I will need surgery it is just a matter of time. They both agree I should have my L5-S1 disc fused and my L4/5 disc replaced with a prodisc but that I should wait as long as possible if I can for new technologies and to prolong the beginning of what will be a surgical cycle in my life. They say it is a quality of life decision as to whether to have the surgery now or try and continue with the pain.

I need advice, have any of you worked 40 hr weeks with constant pain? How hard is it? I can't even imagine. Anyone start having problems as young as I am? Any advice? I don't know what to do, I don't want to rush into something just because I am in pain and have it make life worse later, I just don't know how to tell when it's time, when the pain is too much.