[Michelle]

3 1\2 months post op and had my facets injected today. I feel great right now, though the doc warned me that would only last most of today as the local anesthetic is still around. The next week will probably be bad, then hopefully the steroid will help after that. It's a good sign that I have -0- pain right now, isn't it? I'm hoping so. I would love to get rid of this last 2 of 10 pain. Tolerable if they can't, but boy, wouldn't it be great?? I don't expect to have no back pain the rest of my life, but I'd settle for getting off the rest of these meds! The doc did say that it appeared that the facets were 'off' a little bit in relation to each other (don't remember the exact words he used). He said my spinal column is lined up properly, but the facets don't seem to be. I wondered if that was due to having years of very little disc height, now restored to normal. They've been jammed together on each other a while. He did say no wonder they hurt. I still have some upper back pain/spasms, but I've found they immediately decrease when I extend my back to the normal lumbar lordosis. I've found it's less painful when I flex my back a bit (extension often hurts the facets!) so I often flatten the lordosis. Am I getting flexion/extension mixed up? Bending back hurts the facets, and so I flatten the lordosis, causing my upper back to slump forward. I'm hoping that if we can control the facet pain, I'll be able to return to the normal posture more easily. I'm still thrilled with the relief I've gotten so far, and I'm just hoping for a little more!