Hooch, thanks for bringing up the facets... it may lead to an interesting discussion on how the degeneration and imaging may be involved here.
I asked Dr. Reul to 'overlay' the part of the story that imaging will tell in my case. I would have been happier if he said, "yes, all your other costovertebral joints look perfect, but these two look severely degenerated." That would have been peirfect, but he did NOT say that. He simply said that in my case, imaging added NOTHING. I'll speak to him today and try to get him to show me good vs. bad costovertebral joints. Apparently, my painful ones still look good, or others look worse.
In December when I had my injections, I noticed on the monitor that I have what looks like a grade 4 (end stage) facet lower in my t-spine where I don't think I have any pain. It's kind of wacky that some can look great and be pain generators, while others can look awful and be symptom free. I believe that this is why there are so many failed surgeries. In some cases, it's impossible to get an accurate diagnosis no matter how much resource you throw at it. In other cases, a quick decision to do surgery based on how an xray or mri looks is medically inappropriate.
Spine sucks. You have very few options and they are all bad. I'm glad that I've been able to take the longer road and improve my chance of a positive outcome dramatically. ( I hope I'm not speaking too soon!) I'm glad that I can help my clients to do the same. But when all options suck, and we are just trying to find the one that sucks the least, it is important to do your homework and make informed decisions about your treatment. Sadly, for the average spine patient, it's impossible to unwind all the conflicting information you are getting and not fall prey to the doctor who promises too much and tells you what you want to here. Or the one that is uninformed about the technology that he or she cannot use, or is informed, but won't tell you about them.
Spine sucks... sorry for the long rant.
BTW, more on topic... I'm glad that I decided to stay down and not go out last night. Shortly after my post, I believe that the local that Reul injected wore off. I feel much worse today... like I've been kicked by a horse where the injections were. However, the increased pain from the injections has brought me back, only to where I was before the ablations. I feel about the same as I did yesterday morning. So, still good news so far.
Mark
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