Surgical Options for Long Time Spiney

[Jim M2]

Mark,

Shortly after the surgery in 2003 a Seattle surgeon told me for fusing the ADR in place they remove and clean out the facet joints. They place bone chips where the facets had been and add the rods. The rods are supposed to fix the two vertbras (sp?) until the fusion occurs where the facets had been. He said the success rate was only about 50%. Typically the rods did not eliminate enough motion to allow fusion. That was then.

I think SCS is premature at this point. If I go for surgery and it doesn't turn out well, then I would consider SCS more seriously.

My first preference would be to go with stronger medications as long as possible. At some point these back problems will be naturally taken care of. If not the fallback is surgery.

ps - My wife will mail the SCS DVD tomorrow. We're in a crunch for free time. Our condo was flooded and the kitchen and dining area was demolished for dry out. Ugh.