Greetings,
I'm a new member, so I guess this is the part where I post my history, and where I am now...
I'm a 24-year-old female, married, mother of one hyper 6-year-old son. I'm an Air Force Wife, and a Marine Corps Veteran. I'm too young for this. I used to run 10Ks and half-marathons, I used to be a competitive figure skater, I used to be SO active. I type this from my bedroom, three weeks after rolling the dice in a surgical gamble to GET MY LIFE BACK.
I herniated my L4-5 and L5-6 during boot camp in 2006. I got discharged. I went through physical therapy, got to a manageable point.
In 2010, I fell down a flight of stairs that kick-started this sickening downward spiral of pain and now, surgery.
I was uninsured in 2010 when I had that fall. In December, I got new insurance, and immediately set in motion the paperwork to get a new MRI, as my last one was from 2007-ish.
Before I could get the MRI done, Dr. Carlton Reckling tried to convince me it was SI joint pain and cortisone injections would be the answer. I knew he couldn't possibly be right... insisting, without any diagnostic tests to back it up, that it wasn't my back.
The most recent MRI, finally done in May, showed severe DDD at L4-5, and L5-S1. I am fortunate enough to live within reasonable driving distance for Dr. Kenneth Pettine in Loveland, Colorado. I immediately set up a consult with him at the recommendation of the great guys at the VA Hospital in Cheyenne. Dr. Pettine took one look at me and said. "ADR, cortisone, or live-with-it." My insurance, TriCare, doesn't cover ADR for those not on active-duty at the time of the surgery, so my only option for ADR was the Freedom vs. ProDisc-L study. It took my husband and I about 3.5 seconds to make that decision. Problem: I had potentially 3 bad discs, and the Freedom study is only open to those with 1 symptomatic level.
Next up... discogram. By some grace of God, I only had one symptomatic level - L4-5. The others, though degenerated, weren't causing pain. Surgery was scheduled for three weeks later.
I'm a Freedom recipient... the disc that's in trial (I'm assuming most people are familiar with the trial at this point). I had surgery on July 20th. The abdominal pain was so bad, but now, 3 weeks later, and I'm wondering how this pain could GET any worse right now. I guess it's healing bone, I mean, they did kind of chisel into my spine.... but I'm at the "wean off the narcotic" phase, too. I literally cried yesterday, wanting to die because the pain in my spine was so unbearable. And it's a totally different kind of pain. It's not the pain pre-op... that was nerve pain and numbness and tingling. This is "someone took a Louisville Slugger and hit me square across the back" kind of pain.
For those who have been there... please tell me this goes away?
This post isn't as eloquent as I wanted it to be... I'll update more at a different time.
Oh - and here's a
link to my public facebook album with all my MRI pictures, etc, for those who are interested.