Quote:
Originally Posted by mmglobal
Marty, sorry that you need to be her, but glad you found us. Do the MRI's show the nerve compression that is consistent with the nerve symptoms you are having. Is the disc moderately or severely collapsed? (When you describe mild ddd, I presume that it's not. rereading, I see mild loss of signal.. minor narrowing.) There are many treatment options available and I recommend that you learn about them all. Some of the new technologies sound exciting, but are not ready for prime time. Nucleus repairs seem to require an annulus repair for them to be viable. There are a couple of annulus repairs out there that don't seem to get too much attention. Since you are talking about bulges and not tears and protrusions, these may not apply to you.
If you've got good disc height, and are mostly radicular pain... not low back pain, it's hard to imagine that ADR is what you need... Do the axial views on your MRI (horizontal slices) show the compression? If not, chemical irritation of the nerve root may be in play... often with very benign looking MRI's and very poorly understood by many practitioners.
You should be able to come back... but make no mistake that the first cut of the knife is the most important. Do your homework, make informed decisions!
Mark
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Mark,
The pain in my (R) leg seems to be getting a bit easier to tolerate. It is staying more focused in the Back and Glutes. It's a weird feeling as it almost feels like it is a tickly burning numb sensation. But this is only later in the late afternoon after I have been doing whatever around the house. By 6:00 PM, I am not worth a darn unless I take something. And then the pain is still there, I just don't care about it.
The Mornings and evenings have been the toughest. Once I get things warmed up, I can actually stand upright with a little confidence. Mid morning and noon are great, but I have been careful not to go under any false pretense and put my cape back on.
Confidence is going to be my biggest issue. I am that tenacious guy that won't stop. Cautious, but driven for perfection. After speaking with the Doctors, they are telling me the Disc will not heal and I mat need to alter my lifestyle. That's the part that bother me, " alter my lifestyle".
There seems to be no major compression and the Surgeon has even said it's not that bad to merit any of there procedures, yet. No major impingement and they cannot exlain to me how MILD the DDD is or how severe the tear is. And he comes out with that dreaded Phrase again....I feel as if I am getting processed.
I'm kinda stuck between a rock and a hard place right now. I guess my biggest concerns have me wrapped up tight. Let's say we get this disc to pop back in and keep the pain focused in the lower back. Then I'm told to go ahead and resume with normal activities. I feel like they keep putting air in the tire until they find the nail. Then they plug it only for the plug to fail 3 months later while your going 75 MPH down I-95. When they could have just changed the tire from the start.