[Maria]

I had one discetomy in '89 that went well. Big ol' open surgery and while it was somewhat cumbersome to recover from it went really well in retrospect.

Sadly I had a knee surgery following that which landed me in a long leg cast and I believe encouraged the demise of L4 which was probably going downhill fast anyway after the L5S1 discectomy of '89.

The L4 percuteneous discectomy results were worse than awful. I mean horrific. But then again we're talking the early stages of percutenous discectomies and it should have had a good result considering I utilized the services of a Neurosurgeon but back then he was older nearing retirement and I didn't inquire as to his experience with this type of surgery vs. some others he was probably much more experienced with.

I had a good result with first surgery and terrible with 2nd. More lumbar surgery has been recommended. I grow older and have more medical problems including osteoporosis of lumbar spine. Sometimes it's not just that our spines are getting older but so are we and the propensity for other medical/health problems that will have to be considered should we need or choose to have a major spine surgery.

Please keep this factor in mind as well.