[johnb]

Well, I'm 4 months out from dynesys removal. The removal recovery was much more painful than putting it in and my surgeon couldn't tell me why. I did get a reprieve from the nerve pain that developed shortly after having it put in but it has returned in both legs the last few weeks. It comes on much stronger when I'm standing and I'm curious about being evaluated in a load bearing position. It is painful but I don't sense any weakness and have no burning, just your bread and butter sharp pain here and there but mostly dull cramping aches. For the first time in a year, I went out with some friends to sort of test things out. We just went a few miles down the road and watched a friend of mine who plays guitar. I've had nerve pain ever since and I'm gonna have to go back on Lyrica or "Morontin". My local back pain isn't too bad except that I get a sharp pain on the lower left on occassion. The pain on this side after surgery was like a lightning bolt. It was the worst pain I've ever had and I'm not new at this. Also, some of my facets have auto fused inside the capsule. I don't have a scan to prove this 100% but I can tell that fusion has occured when I flex my spine. That explains why I don't have a certain lower back pain that I had pre surgery. After discussing this with my surgeon, he concluded that I did have facet pain and he did note a loss of motion and concluded that my facets had fused within the capsule just as cerviequeens had. I responded with, "well, good thing I didn't have an ADR at that level" and he concurred. That was the original plan a few years ago. I could still do a hybrid but I'm not sold on today's ADR technology. I realize some do great but I don't have the tolerance for the risk in my situation and my facets aren't great higher up. I had no idea my facets were that bad. I'm really interested in the new elastomer designs and we will have data on those in a few years since trials have started.

So what's next? Well, I'm gonna see a neuro that did my Aunt's fusion. She likes him (she barely likes anyone but don't tell her I said that) and I've heard good things about their practice. He's actually done research on cervical ADR's so I hope to get a balance perspective of old and new. They are selective which means they aren't an aggressive surgery factory. The main goal is to find out where the irritation originates from and go from there and have my spine evaluated by a new professional. Then I'll make informed decisions in a systematic manner.

John