[Maria]

Greg,
reading your initial post I could identify with several things such as my injury too was work related tho not a fall, I had the flash backs re terrible frightening pain after having a successful first surgery tho then the disc above had problems ...

I also have a cervical disc bulge plus the remaining low back disc problems altho with time and many a surgical consult and recommendation tho no further surgeries after my 2nd (which failed miserably) I am doing far better.

Yes I do take pain meds altho have been pretty much on same dose now for nearly 10 years. Light dose of pain med and 1800mg of Neurontin. At least my pain has really subsided/stabilized and so forth after many years of debilitating pain that forced me into a very early retirement.

I too recommend multiple consultations with highly reputable doctors. Ditto on the recommendation to contact Mark M. with your situation/history and that's a serious ditto! Mark has been so helpful to so many of us and even with my WC situtaion he was greatly helpful to me and I believe the outcome of my case in the last few years.

My original injury was in 1982 working in Neurosurgery and taking care of a post op patient (transfer from gurney to bed). So ... I've had a long history with back pain and have been thru much however am just happy to be where I am today altho there was a time when I would have NEVER thought I would feel this good again.

Good luck and even tho it seems as tho your life is controlled and ruined by pain just remember that you don't really know what is going to happen in the future with your spine so just take it day by day. Sending yourself mentally into the future and dooming yourself to a life full of pain because you feel it so horribly today isn't necessarily what the future will be like.

Hang in there and do the best you can for now and give yourself credit for that even if it's just telling your kids you love them very much, hugging them and helping them to be the best they can be~ Love is very strong and can do so much~ even if you cannot physically.