emergency disectomy & reoperation after 1 wk
I am new to this site and just looking for some more resources to use. I have been struggling with DDD for some time now but it really came to light over a year ago on Jan. 2, 2008 with a work injury with back and radiating leg pain. After weeks of Pt and epidural injections, surgery was discussed. MRI showed L4-5 herniation and L5-S1 protrusion/bulge. Discogram confirmed need for further interaction-- tear in L5-S1 and L4-5 disc totally gone. After weeks of back and forth with workers comp and doctors, I finally decided to do a disc replacement with Dr. Yue-- only catch was that I had to lose some weight. After 4 weeks or so, the weight did not come off fast enough and I got worse. Dr. Yue took a new MRI which showed more disc protrusion. I was scheduled for an emergency discectomy the day before my b-day on Jan. 24. I expected to be in the hospital only 3 days but got worse and was rushed again into surgery to find out the problem. They said I had tremendous swelling which further pressed on the nerves. I am now post-op 1 week and went to the doc today. He said that I may or may not still need ADR surgery and won't know for 3-6 months when I heal and lose weight. Any tips how to deal with this limbo?? Also I am dealing with workers comp-- I got fired due to my back condition-- have been out of work for a year now but I really want to know if that was legal. Any suggestions was be greatly appreciated. Thanks for reading my long post.
Last edited by SASSY178; 02-10-2009 at 12:37 AM.
Reason: new title to help others
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