In the dark....are things ever going to improve?
 

I herniated my L5/S1 in Jan of 08 but now in hindsight there may have been plenty of warnings in the past. I made it worse by going to a Chiro. but I did not know any better. I have been out of work since March with very conservative treatment and very vague answers about everything. When do doctors determine that surgery is a must?

I am struggling with the idea of surgery b/c I have improved---I can sit for up to an hour, stand for limited amount of time, walk with a limp and bearable pain. Sleeping is happening but the first half of the night is uncomfortable. My pain consists of burning in the left leg, sharp pains in the thigh, posterior knee, calf, and ankle. I plan on going to work next week b/c I cannot stand this house any longer. If I am at this stage, should I wait on surgery? Is surgery a cure-all? Has anyone had the DASCOR Anthroplasty procedure? I feel that I wondering around in the dark with doctors that are afraid to say anything about anything (2nd opinion is today!!!).
Bob
5/28/08--2nd Opinion
4/8/08--Specialist Diagnosis, Steroid Injections
3/12/08--MRI Herniated Disc L5/S1
1/15/08--Injury occurred.

re waiting and not waiting..
 

I waited 7 years between my first diagnosis and my first discectomy but back then (1989) there really weren't that many options out there. Now I wish I had waited a longer period of time for my 2nd surgery as that was nearly 2 years later on the disc above and it failed miserably. And I was like you with periods of getting better and periods of exacerbation. In hindsight tho probably surgical technique could have been better or it was just the *newness* of the percutaneous discectomy procedure. Of course one's own bodily reaction has to do with the equation as well.

Should you wait or should you not? Is this a repetative thing that keeps happening and you lose work time over it? When I made the decision for my first discectomy it was because my back was going out every 2 months and out of that time I'd spend nearly a month in bed. That was it, my decision was definate. That surgery was successful...

Good luck, I like to get several surgical opinions at least

With spine... there is no such thing as a cure all. Many patients have excellent success... some just go back to their lives and forget they ever had a spine problem. But, heading down the road of spine surgery is a very serious undertaking. My wife and I just went through the decision makine process... you are about 8 months behind her.

You may be able to wait it out... some people will just get better. When my wife was 2 months post injury, the advice we got was that if she was still getting worse, the likelyhood that she'd be one of the lucky ones to just have the herniation reabsorb was very small. She did endoscopic discectomy that was very well done and seemed to be successful, but after 2.5 months, she started going downhill again and recently had ADR.

You have much to learn and to think about... do your homework... make informed decisions.

All the best,

Mark

PS... just bumped this thread to the top for you http://www.ispine.org/forum/showthread.php?t=393

I waited 7 years...

Please wait if at all possible and try anything else first before comtemplating surgery as a last resort. A lot of times it takes at least 6 month to a year to recover from such an injury and as you found out that Chiros don't help at all and should never work on such an inury. Do study and learn and be ready when the time is right. Waiting too long an be not so good also.