L4-L5 surgery on August 4 2010

Hello all,

I have been reading some of the posts on here and thought that I would write in about my own concerns or questions. I am scheduled to have surgery on my L4-L5 on August 4th. I have a herniated disc and my surgeon wants to go the least invasive route and just take out the herniated material, clean up anything else he thinks might be problem and then stitch the disc back together (I think it's a new procedure) so that hopefully this doesn't happen again. He did mention that I had lost disc height and that this may or may not take care of the back pain that I was having but that it would take care of the leg and hip pain I have experienced.

I was wondering if anyone has had this procedure done, which I am sure there are plenty, and what I have to look forward to post-op. I read comments from folks that experienced a lot of pain, I'm sure it's different for each individual but I would like to go into this with my eyes open knowing what to expect.

Thanks so much in advance,

M

Hi Linda,

I don't remember the technical name of the "stitching disc" procedure, I have my paper work at home with the name of the surgery I will be having. The doctor said that if the tear in the disc isn't significantly wide the stitching would be an option otherwise it won't. I will look on the paper work when I get home to see if it says.

Marie