Blairsara,
So sorry you had such a difficult time with your rhizotomy. Mine was a piece of cake and I only needed a local anesthetic. I'm also sorry to hear about your hyperextended and stuck facet joint. The facet joints each have a little meniscus just like the ones in your knees. Sometimes those meniscii can get trappped and effectively "lock" the joint (just like in the knees). Maybe that's what happened when your Charite allowed such excessive hyperextension?
Did your images show how bad your facet degeneration is? If your facets have been hurting because of an entrapped meniscus, then it's possible you don't really have much if any arthritis. In that case, you could consider a moderately invasive posterior dynamic stabilziation device like CoeFlex or Wallis to correct the excessive motion permitted by your Charite while still permitting proper motion at that level. The interspinous devices are not nearly as invasive as a fusion or even Dynesys, so, it's really worth considering if your facet joints are in good shape.
While I also have a Charite and facet pain, my situation is very different. I don't get excessive motion either in flexion or extension, however, my facets are truely arthritic, so, motion correction will not be enough for me. Looking back over four year to my pre and immediately post-op images, it's clear to me that I just waited too long to get my ADR after my natural disc collapsed. I will need true facet arthroplasty to really fix my problem, and that technology is just too new right now.
If it ends up that you have really bad facet arthritis AND that's the real cause of your pain, then you might want to ask Dr. Regan about the AFRS (Anatomical Facet Replacement System). I think that he may be one of the PI's in the clinical trial which is getting underway. Sometimes just learning about future solutions makes it easier to put up with today's pain and problems.
Best of Luck!
Laura
|