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Who Has Had Back Surgery?

dav1965
What was it for and did it work?

Would you do it again?

Do you wish you would have done it sooner?

I am faced with that decision and i have no idea what to do. If it was anything other than my back it would already be fixed like my knee replacements.
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Comments

9 comments

Date Votes
  • toad67
    L3 micro disectomy. Best decision I ever made.
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  • charliemeyer007
    Lots of factors to consider. Research the procedure and the doc preforming it. Sometimes you can actually contact people that had it done by that guy - ask. How is the rest of you health? Weak heart, lungs, kidneys, immune system and being out of shape aren't good factors for surviving the surgery and the laying around healing process.

    A lot of people I know have had several back surgeries - it seems like once they start cutting it continues.

    Good luck.
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  • us55840
    I've had two in same area ... L 5 for ruptured disc...both back in the mid/late 1970's.
    Second one was due to scar tissue pushing on sciatic nerve.

    There have been many advances in back neurosurgery since then.

    Yes, it relieved MOST of the pain so I could function.
    No, it won't return your back to the normal it was before an injury/issue.

    I am in discomfort every day but tolerable & far less than before. I'm careful how I move and refrain from lifting anything over 20# and then lift with care.

    Everyone is different. Some say it cured everything & some say it put them in a wheelchair for life.

    Even a competent, highly regarded and successful at neurosurgery doctors/hospital will have you sign a release if your results are not good.

    You can live with the pain ........ or have surgery. :shock:
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  • Grunt2
    Trashed my back about 6 years ago...Got to the point I couldn't walk and the pain was excruciating...My butt felt like it was used as a punching bag and leg pain down to my foot...Went to a local clinic that referred me to a sport clinic a few hours away. Got a shot and a MRI...The Dr. stated he wanted me to go to the hospital until I could be seen by a back Dr. the following Monday...Went to see the Dr. on Monday and had a consultation with the Docs assistant... Immediately got a lecture that not everybody needs back surgery...Sheesh!(she hadn't even looked at the MRI)...Told me to go home and do my CORE exercises and maybe they would make a surgical appointment in 6 months! Needless to say we found another Dr. At "Colorado Spine" in Durango. That place is awesome! He looked at the MRI and bumped me ahead of several patients. He told me if I had done the CORE exercises, I would most likely have been paralyzed...He performed what is called an XLIF at L3 and L4 with some serious hardware and bone graft...Went through my back and my side...They implanted a cable that looked like a 100 pair phone cable through my side just to monitor all the nerves while he was operating...The Dr. said I had to walk a mile before I would be released...I walked the mile on the second day and walked out of the hospital on day 3...No regrets!!

    Good luck! ;)
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  • notnow
    Tomorrow AM at 6 i'll be having a PLIF L4-5, L5-S1 Decompression with PSI. I was given a visualization of what that is, but whatever it is I need it. Surgeon said 2 rods and 6 screws.
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  • callktulu
    toad67 wrote:
    L3 micro disectomy. Best decision I ever made.

    Same for me! Yes, if you trust your doctor, then do it.
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  • bambihunter
    Numerous ones. I have herniated L3, L4, L5-S1. I have had them worked on several times. Each one was critical. I was down and out, unable to work, or much of anything. At that point suicide was looking VERY attractive. Not for depression, but a person can only take so much severe pain. Since then, I have also been diagnosed with Rheumatoid and osteoarthritis, and I have Schmorl nodes, and degenerative disk disease. My pain management doctor jokes that I have about all I can have to a back except for breaking it. I said thanks Doc, you just jinxed me. :?

    Back to your question, yes my first and last back surgeries were unavoidable. They got rid of the severe sciatica but not all the pain. It is interesting how these things effect people differently. I am in I.T. now so doesn't require a ton of lifting, but due to me having such a thin disk tissue remaining, I do still get periodic 'zaps' that shoots violently down my legs and have dropped me to the ground on several occasions. Now, I have to exist on 130mg of pain meds (between every day time release and my normal as needed which is usually all of them). But, it allows me to have some semblance of a life. I did have to give up a LOT of things I loved, particularly water skiing, playing basketball or racquetball. If I am ultra careful, I can still hunt and fish and visit the misses if you know what I mean. I don't know your views to pain meds. Before, I was apt to use them only when I was about to be curled up on the floor type pain. The doctor kept at it and kept at it and that has largely kept me from having the big flare-ups where I miss weeks of work sometimes. Ignore all the "addictive" media coverage. Some people do have addictive personalities so they are at-risk. Everyone else, especially those dying from OD are simply not using it like they should. Period.

    One thing that I consider very important is your decision of the doctor. All of mine had been done by a Neurologist rather than an Orthopedic doctor. The first is a specialist working around the nerves. Certainly the Orthopedic doctor deals with them some in the course of their joint replacements, but I have always insisted on Neuro doc instead.

    I have very actively been watching some of the FDA trials regarding back health. Things like synthetic disks show great promise. Mechanical joints were awesome because they offer full mobility and remarkable recovery times. But, there have been two known failures (last I saw). One person was in a car accident, the other fell on the ice. Now, they are both paraplegic. So, I wait. I am nearly 49 and had my first back surgery the time and day of the OKC bombing. 4-19-95. Thankfully we hadn't moved to that area yet at that time. I can only imaging a doctor flinching with the explosion and cutting my nerves or something. As it was, I was 200 miles away when it happened.
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  • jwb267
    L4 and L5
    yes I would have it again
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  • dav1965
    bambihunter
    I have been told by a friend to go with a neurologist instead of a back doctor. All my back problems as far as i understand it come from osteoarthritis. I had to have my knees replaced because of that. I got sick in 2010 and spent a little over a year in bed with cancer and all the doctors say thats where my arthritis comes from plus its heriditary. Thanks for all of the information. I am the type that if i get confined to a wheel chair i will not be here very long. I made that decision a very long time ago when i was in the military.

    I am already on pain meds so i have no issues taking more or less. Less would be great though. I would love to go back to work again. I take 120mg of extended release and fast relief.

    I do not know of anyone in NC who has had a decent outcome with back surgery. Ev eryone i lknow is worse now than then.

    One thing the doctor explained to me that i did not understand was that i have water build up on my back from damage. The only thing i can find is cyst but why would she not say i have a cyst on my back?

    I do not see the pain doctor that ordered the mri until the end of the month so i have to wait a while.

    Thanks for the info.
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