Hey everyone,
I figured it was time I get on here instead of surfing around reading your posts without being able to ask questions. It seems there are a number of you that have a whole lot in common with me....
I was a year round athlete, active in all sports until (The Incident) I was doing squats with a fairly heavy weight, and made the mistake of looking down. My back popped, I went down, and the weights came down with me. Next day was at the hospital barely able to walk (waterbeds are not a good idea the same day you injure your back, but this was long, long ago) MRI showed herniated L4-5, L5-S1. Had a couple of epidurals, but they didn't touch the sciatica. Two months later, with no quality of life at all, I had my first discectomy at age 20.
Recovered great, 6 months later I was back in the gym working out again, although I did give up on squats. Two years later I was playing in a flag football league with my roommates and got hit in the back by a 300# guy who apparently didn't like me (The incident Part II) The next day I couldn't move. After about a month of intense pain, I made an appointment to see the surgeon again. Another MRI, another L4-5, L5-S1 blowout. He referred me to his partner, who was apparently the back guy in their practice. Hmmm? why didn't he do the first one? Guess the other doc wanted to try it out and see if he like it too.
Recovered from that surgery with no problems to speak of and was good up until '95. Guy ran a stop sign and broadsided me going about 35 mph (The Incident Part III) That is where my cervical problems came from. Had a couple of shots, not pleasant, and it calmed down, other than numbness and tingling in my arms and a constantly stiff neck.
Good to go after that until '07 (The Incident Part IV) Bent over lifting a case out of my truck, and POP, down I go...again. Same terrible back and leg pain as when I first hurt it. Same routine, only this time it moved up my spine and I blew out L3-4, with annulus tear on L4-5. Now after all I'd been through before, the last thing I wanted was to get cut on again. Did PT, injections, meds, PT, TENS, traction, pretty much everything we could think of to do. In '09 I couldn't take it anymore and had the discectomy on L3-4. Since '07, I had lbp, that constant burning, nagging sciatica all the way into my foot. This time though, I had it into my left quad as well due to the L3-4 disc. The only thing the surgery did for me was get rid of the quad pain, everything else has got worse since '07. Some days better than others, but not one good day since.
They've tried everything except bleeding me with leeches, which I would do right now if it would help. Been to two neuro's in the last year, both say two level fusion at L5-S1, L4-5, is the only thing that will fix me. I was almost to the point of believing them until I found this site, and man am I glad I did! I've sent the info sheet into Ritter-Lang, and am going to contact Bierstadt and Zeegers as well for their opinions.
My last MRI showed 1mm of disc space left at L5-S1, 2mm @L4-5. Not quite sure what some of the other stuff means on the MRI, but it says I have a 3mm facet joint spur on the S1 nerve. Bone spurs also at L4-5, and L3-4, both with scarring and DDD. I guess the upside is that L1-L3 show the discs are within normal limits! Yaaa!
I'm at the end of my rope with my back, my quality of life is
. Everything I do other than lay on the bed, makes it worse. Currently on Hydro and Lyrica and TENS unit.
Sorry to make this so long, but "The story you have heard is true, only the names have been changed to protect the innocent" Oh ya, I turn 47 next week.