[Maria]

I'm bringing this topic up even though I think I may be the only person here who has waited long enough for this to occur however I'd like to state some of my own personal progress w/"just waiting"...

Since my 1992 failed percutaneous discectomy I've had *chronic low back pain* as opposed to episodic low back pain.


L5S1 had a rather successful open discectomy in '89 followed by more problems at L4 and a percutaneous discectomy in '92.

This was followed by horrendous days/years of pain (nearly 5) and then the advent of starting Neurontin for neuropathies in '98 (which I had since before '92 but chronic since then). In 2001 I started very low dose Methadone for low back pain and ESIs.

In 2001 a 3 level global fusion was recommended. Didn't do it.
In 2003 a 2 level ADR in trials was offered. Didn't do it.
In 2006 an ADR at L4 and fusion at L5S1 was offered. Didn't do it.

By 2006 I had noticed the ability to do more, be more active without such timely recovery periods from my back getting out of whack.

By 2008 I learned that use of injectable Toradol considerably reduced what I had thought was my "back going out" and disc related pain.. perhaps it was only muscle spasms or muscle spasms irritating the disc or vice versa...

By 2009 I've noticed I can sit longer without repercussion, can sometimes sit for 2 hour bus trip, can sit for one hour bus ride into LA, sat and stood recently at the Hollywood Bowl for Sound of Music big screen movie~ box seats and it was a blast. The next day had some tailbone pain that limited my ability to sit or do too much but by Monday I was OK and did usual activities as well as walking an hour at night.

But I digress.. I'd been told a short while back after a lumbar xray that it appears L5S1 has autofused.

My back injury was in 1982. That's a long haul I will admit and I surely don't recommend it to anyone however I do feel that if I have autofused that the lack of motion in that L5S1 segment has greatly helped me to be more mobile actually with less down period time.

Of course I'm still taking the Methadone and getting an occasional ESI that is given transforaminally at L4 and the last 2 times bilaterally.

I've been told my facets at L4 have degenerated as well as at L5S1 so I'd not be a candidate any longer for ADR surgery (by my OSS). That makes me wonder if I were to have surgery some time in the future would it be only a fusion at L4, perhaps with ADR at L3 (has anular tear but so far not concordant for pain on discogram last done in '06).

Maybe if I'm fortunate I'll autofuse at L4 as well..

I also wonder just say I were to have a discogram done again~ if L5S1 is autofused then the disc should be fibrotic or gone I suppose so would it be impossible to or useless to perform discogram on this level? If it were performed would it be possible for it to still be a pain generator (it was the biggest pain generator on my '06 discogram).

I'm experiencing alot of GI difficulty with evacuation and have upper and lower endoscopy scheduled for next Friday tho I am hoping to eventually get off the Methadone and at least switch to Suboxone. I'm not sure how I'd function w/o pain medication.. maybe everything would be killing me and I'd find that I've really not progressed tho I do think I have.

We never know what will happen until we try it and I can look at my own situation several ways like maybe I waited too long for xyz or maybe I tried waiting and it has worked out for me in some ways~ that's the way it seems right now.