Minimally Invasive Oxygen-Ozone Therapy for Lumbar Disk Herniation

[John Galt]

Hi all!
It's been a while since I've last posted here. My herniated disc has not improved and the results from my last MRI say,"L4-L5 large left paracentral disc herniation/extrusion with inferior migration of disc material into the left lateral recess with posterior displacement of the descending left L5 and S1 nerve root."

I'm getting occasional leg pain which gets worse during the Winter months.
Swimming, which I love, sets it off also. I had consulted with a surgeon who thought that my pain level was not worthy of surgery so tomorrow I'm going to consult with a doctor about possibly using Ozone. I've posted the info before about injecting Ozone directly into the disc using fluoroscopic guidance a couple of years ago.
Minimally Invasive Oxygen-Ozone Therapy for Lumbar Disk Herniation

Anyway, I thought that I would document this so that it may help others in the future because I've not found much on message boards from people who have actually had Ozone injections. I will post more info as I get it.
Any questions feel free to ask.

[Maria]

Hey John,
I just happened to look on the forum today and saw that you will be consulting with someone re Ozone therapy for your disc herniation and I'll be very interested to hear more about what you find out from this consultation and should you decide to proceed how it goes! Please keep us posted.

Wishing you the best! Maria

[John Galt]

Hi, the consultation went well and I'll probably have this done. I was impressed with the Doctor and his experience with Ozone. However, due to the herniation being large he lowered the success rate to about 70%. I probably would have been better off getting this done years ago because the herniation has since got larger.
He also stated that the ozone injection should stop the herniation from getting worse.

[Maria]

I wonder if it would work for annular tears? I had read something about stem cell therapy re disc bulges and asked my OSS about it last time I saw him and he said he didn't know how well that would work for disc bulges or herniations and also that as old as what I have going on is the only thing that 's going to do anything at this point is fusion which is what I have successfully to date avoided.

Thanks for sharing and wish you success with it ..even if it just stops it from progressing. My disc bulges recurred post discectomies and at L4 I still have one about the same size as before surgery. L5S1 is well dried out by now and pretty well on it's way to auto fusion.

I had an annular tear at L3 and it used to give me quite a bit of grief tho these days everything is pretty much blamed on arthritic changes and L4/L5.

Again wishing you the best results you can have!

[John Galt]

Thanks Maria. Have you looked into Prolotherapy in place of fusion? It's a less invasive way to stabilize the lumbar.

[Maria]

I've not looked into anything really any further re my spine because supposedly WC (Workers Compensation) covers my low back as I have long had Future Medical Benefits from an work related injury however the truth is they deny everything now even my pain medication so in essence they are only paying for my PM appts. and visit every 3 months and OSS 2x/year but nothing else. I have no coverage with my regular insurance or Medicare since supposedly WC covers my low back so had to sign papers for that part of my bod to be waived re any care.

Yeah so not doing anything except taking a low dose of my pain med daily. I have just arrived home after being gone for 2 months so need to check my mail to see if there is anything there that tells me my care won't be paid for anymore re visits which I wouldn't doubt re Workers Comp.

My regular health insurance has a $3k deductible so I try not to go to doctors anymore at least in the USA. I go to Tijuana Mexico instead to be seen if I'm able to because there the physicians actually treat a person like a human vs. like a number.