Rosedee,
I appreciate your dilemna. I have very painful facets after L5S1 Charite almost five years ago. Here's my thinking so far.
1. Do nothing. This is what I've been doing for almost 5 years. If auto fusion were to take place it would be due to the facets fusing. Very unlikely given the fact that the Charite has preserved motion at L5S1. If I had new imaging I suspect it would show facet hypertrophy, osteophytes, cysts...
2. Fuse. Dr. Z advised that fusion fusing facets and adding rods is only 50% successful because the rods don't always elimate enough motion to make the joint pain free. I guess this means you never truly fuse through the facets. Another approach would be to have the Charite removed followed by tradition fusion. This is very high risk for surgical complications and outcome. I'm still very hestitant to seriously consider this option.
3. Facet replacement. After such bad luck with the Charite it's extremely unlikely I'd try this. If they come up with some very simple, not-so-invasive, reversible method I might consider that. Otherwise I'm too much of a chicken.
I'll be very interested to see what you discover as time unfolds.
__________________
Jim
2003 L5S1 Charite
1981 L5S1 Discectomy
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