[Maria]

James,
So you've not had any surgery to date? That much sounds good to me if it's virgin territory no matter what's going on there. That's just my own opinion after 2 discectomies and then being worse off not better (rebulging, scar tissue, setting spine up for further surgery).

Whether I would have been better or not w/more surgery as was proposed I don't really know and I decided to go with not more surgery but only because I was feeling better than when I was seeking more surgery.

Like you I wasn't too trusting of surgery or in my case more surgery since what I had done seemed to have backfired (felt like backfire too) overall.

Then again I do read about many persons who in the pursuit of a better spine surgically after failed surgeries and/or continued problems actually get that so it seems to me that there are successes and there are failures. Hopefully if you were going for a surgical option your case would yield success.

I had horrific burning pain bilaterally in buttocks and down both legs into feet after my 2nd discectomy for 5 years which really scared me with regard to recurrence and/or recovering from either ADR or fusion and/or both (hybrid).

Oddly enough.. that pain now 19 years post my 2nd surgery is gone. I no longer take medication for that type of pain (still take low dose pain med 1x/day). I don't know if it's because L5S1 finally after many years (like 30 post original injury) autofused with complete dessication of that disc.

All I know is I'm so grateful to be where I'm at currently pain wise vs. where I have been. And I sit quite a bit more than I used to which is still not to say alot or like a normal person who has no limitations on sitting. Just enough to be able to feel like a halfway normal person most of the time before I remember that sitting bothers me or can kind of lay me out if I don't get up and move around. Not the terrible pain that used to just drag me to the depths of despair or was down and out impossible...

Have you talked to Mark here? Perhaps he could be of help to you at least just to talk to...