Quote:
Originally Posted by Maria
I never had the word capacious used in any of my reports however my lumbar spinal canal was always described as large. I had years of pretty horrific pain and small bulges. No doctor every told me my very large spinal canal meant that I would have less pain but I was told that my subjective complaints didn't match the clinical findings (on MRI re size of bulges). Still discectomies were performed due to continuing complaints and a 3 level global fusion was offered later when discectomies failed and when I didn't do the fusion then a 2 level ADR was offered and later a hybrid surgery with ADR at L4 and fusion at L5S1. I did not have any more surgeries after the failed discectomies.
I had often wondered if my large spinal canal made my bulges seem smaller than they actually were. Like you I figured it was better than having stenosis then again considering the degree of pain I had for years (30) I'm not sure it made any difference in my pain only in what surgery might be an option for relief.
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Gosh - you have certainly been through the mill, and I think I'm suffering after 5 or 6 weeks of pain.....
I'm very surprised they operated when your symptoms did not match up with MRI findings - a sort of wild 'stab in the dark' approach. I doubt the NHS (United Kingdom) would do any surgery under such circumstances. But then again the NHS will only do surgery in the most desperate of situations, I'm never sure if this is because they are too mean to spend our money, or they are genuine in suggesting surgery should always be the very last resort.