It sounds like you are going through a discovery process similar to what we did for my wife in 2007. She had a large, centrally located disc herniation at L5-S1 that was too difficult for many of the most experienced endoscopic surgeons around. She was 50 and never had the slightest hint of a back problem until suddenly having significant LBP followed days later with leg pain and numbness.
She had an MRI on a wednesday and by Thursday night I had spoken to 1/2 dozen of the world's leading surgeons... all saying that it behooves us to go with a discectomy for her first surgery. About a week later, I got a call from Bertagnoli. He had been reviewing her films again and was changing his opinion. He said that because her disc was compromised in nearly every sagittal slice, "the disc will not survive". This was one of the few cases like this in which he'd recommending going straight to ADR.
Even though his is one of the very few opinions we respect the most, we believe that with spine surgery, less is better and still elected to have an endoscopic discectomy with Tom Hoogland, then at the AlphaKlinik. He did a wonderful job and Diane recovered very nicely. She was up and around the same day, enjoying Munich in the days that followed. I worked the following week then we did several days in Prague. Hoogland's work was perfect and she was great for 3 months. Then she started having leg pain on the other side. Onset was May 2007, surgery in July, then went bad in October. In March 2008, she had ADR and is still doing well, working full time as an RN (in an office, not on a surgical floor as she feels it's too risky for a spiney.)
Her case really showed me something about the decision making process. A more critical eye towards the condition of the disc may yield a more appropriate decision. We all understand that less is better. I'll bet that the same discovery process with the same situation as Diane's will generate 99% of opinions for discectomy. In retrospect, it would have been nice to have avoided the costs (physical, time, financial...) of the first surgery. I'm not sure how we would decide again, because ADR is a big step that should be avoided if possible. But, I would definitely consider the overall condition of the disc and other factors.
Let me know if you'd like to discuss this in more detail. Good luck! Welcome to the forum... I'm sorry that you find yourself in this situation. All the best,
Mark
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