[runner]

sounds good
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Adrienne,

I have got to love the stuff I read about Degenerative Disc Disease. Often I wonder if I am normal to have DDD or not. Or is it DJD (Degenerative Joint Disease)?
I was reading an explanation of DDD on some other internet site and the doctor was saying that the pain usually isn't so bad and that you can usually get over it and everyone has DDD, blah, blah.
I was thinking what a joke on me to have DDD and need a new disc. It is those painful annular tears that do us in.

You are preop so your symptoms seem just about right (correct?).
Before the surgery, I had numbness in my lower legs and my right thigh and mild sciatica but excruciating back pain. Now, I have kind of switched.

Nevertheless, I would take ADR over fusion any day. I'm so glad my ADR is functioning well and is placed well. Now I just have to regain my fitness that I lost waiting for surgery. I just have to stay awake as the Gabapentin makes me so darn sleepy. Not getting a whole lot done around the house.
Hopefully this is a temporary state and not permanent.

Regarding this site, there are different people on here. Some have neck pain, others back, some are not feeling so well, others just occasionally bothered. It varies. So there are a lot of different threads. Some of us share things in common, others don't.

I think you have a fear after surgery that you are going to blow another disc or move your ADR out of place. This is especially when you talk to doctors who tell you that ADRs are unproven, even dangerous. I think I have gotten over the fear of the plastic part of the disc shooting out of my vertebrae and cutting my aorta.
The thought of that was almost a deal breaker for me but doing more research on discs helped me understand that is not a common occurrence, and happened maybe once, a long time ago.

The doctors who are against ADR can really scare you.
I am still worried about blowing another disc since I have bulges at each disc (except my bionic one) now. Then I read that most people in their uh--um 40's have bulges and they are not symptomatic.

My surgeon didn't want me taking Celebrex because of the cardiac risk but my cardiologist (I was having chest pains preop) said it was okay. I think it will help and at this point, when my disc already has grown in bone, won't hinder things.

I do get frustrated with the current state of things but I am encouraged that it seems temporary. I don't like the drugs, but need them. By the six month mark, I had weaned myself off narcotics, the Gabapentin and was just taking the muscle relaxer and tylenol and ibuphrofen.

I figure if there is really a ticked off nerve (root) that is being pressured, it will be found. On the other hand, if this is just my ADR's "growing pains", eventually things will get better on their own.

Tuning in here, helps us sort things out.
Have you scheduled a surgery yet?
We will be here, of course, to help you out when you need it.