[Blairsara]

I was 22 years old when I had the surgery. About 9 months after the surgery I started having new pain which was due to the surgery. I guess the Charite disc can cause the facet joints to move much farther than they are supposed to and therefore causes degeneration and significant pain. I never had facet joint problems before the surgery. Apparently, there is no way to fix this problem except for a fusion, which I refuse to do. My doctor (Dr. John Regan) is currently working on trying to find a new procedure other than a fusion to fix this problem.

I am wondering if anyone else on here who has had the surgery and happens to be a young patient has this type of pain. How are you dealing with it? For the past year and a half I have had facet blocks every 4 months. I am now going to have a rhizotomy. Has anyone had this procedure? Does it work? I know the procedure is not done to fix the problem, but merely to alleviate the pain.

I recently found out this information - that I am going to have to have another procedure in 3-4 years. That the only thing to make the pain go away is a rhizotomy since the facet blocks don't last that long. I guess I am just frustrated, and figure that since this is a forum for bad backs, I should let out my frustration on this and hope that someone who is having the same problems talk about them with me.

I was off pain killers for a long time. But now the pain has been so bad that I am back on them. Some days are great but other days are terrible. It's exhausting and because of the pain I have insomnia. For those of you out there that have insomnia problems what helps? I have tried all of the sleeping pills on the market and nothing works. I am going to various sleep doctors, but when it all comes down to it, it's the pain.

This has been a long battle, and I assume this is going to go on for a very long time. Is there anyone else out there that is in the mid 20s to late 30s that is going through the same thing? It would be nice to talk to someone who has the same problem. My family is incredibly supportive and so are my friends. But it would be nice to talk to someone who really knows what I am going through.
Thanks.