Jim,
I definitely agree with you on that if I didn't have this problems with my facets then I would be pain free. All I can do now is do everything possible that is available to make it so I am not in a lot of pain. I'm going in for a Rhizotomy in less than 10 hours. I hope that it works. I don't think this pain is worse than my previous pain because I couldnt do anything, now I can do things but I'm limited to a certain extent. And the pain is also very very different from the pain I felt before the surgery.
Have you had facet blocks or a rhizotomy? I know that our here (Los Angeles) my doctors are going to come up with a less invasive procedure other than a fusion to fix the problem but it wont be for at least 3-4 years. I don't want to have the fusion because I guess the surgery is very dangerous after having ADR.
What do you do to try and decrease your pain? I'm sorry that you have this pain too. It sucks, it's frustrating, it's constant, etc... but you still have to keep your head up and never give up on hope that one day you will be pain free.
Blair
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2001 College Ice hockey injury
2002 DDD
2002-2004 epiderals
Spondylolisthesis
1/04 fall in Vegas
1/04-5/04 epiderals
6/24/04 Charite L5/S1
10/04-present new pain from facet joints caused by Charite; 10 facet blocks
12/06 rhizotomy left side
3/07 rhizotomy right side
5/10/2007 Charite removed, anterior IF, posterior instrumentation
180 mg MS-contin; Oxycodone; 16 mg Zanaflex
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