Sorry it looked like I wandered off. Work has been unbelievable lately and I can hardly sit at my computer to do that. So, on 9-25 I started a 6day 10mg Pred pack. It initially helped with the pain in my back and neck for the first few days. The oral steroids always did, though the constipation and insomnia that goes with them keeps them out of the " miracle drug " column. The last 2 days the headache is back with a vengeance and nothing helps though narcotics distract and allow me to sleep. The cevical MRI on 10-2-12 showed 3 bulging/compressed discs in my neck. This reality, along with what I'm getting from my reading around this board and the web have caused me to move toward Slackwater's position on surgery. I was naive in my strictly mechanical, broke-fix, approach to the problem.
The various research projects on injections to revitalize the existing disc are interesting but I don't find one that I could get into now and I don't think I can wait for them to become approved or otherwise mainstream. This headache is starting to scare me because of it's affect on my ability to think and process information. I see the PC doc Monday to go over the MRI. I'm cooling in my desire to get surgery soon but I'm ready to pull the trigger if I can have confidence that what I'm doing will work. I really want to understand more about why I have these problems, if possible. My stats look pretty healthy otherwise. No triathlete, but, I'm just saying....
PS: I do have the pre and post op MRIs with the report, from my L4-5 discectomy that took place 11-4-11
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2010 - diagnosed DDD L3-6
2011 - herniated disc L4-5
11-2011 discectomy L4-5 no improvement
since then- PT, chiro, no noticable improvment
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