seeking some advice

 

Hi everyone,

Today I went back to the spine specialist with my husband.  He is home from Alaska for about 4 weeks. I was glad he went with me to hear how bad my lower back is. Any way, I asked the doctor how bad is my lower back. He replied that it is bone on bone and that we are managing the pain with injections. The next injection we are still waiting for the insurance to approve. Then he said that we could do surgery and fuse them together but then that starts a series of surgeries for the rest of my life. I am only 41 years old. Does this sound right?

Sassi, have you had a second opinion? Any time you have a huge surgery like that, it's good to get one. How many injections have you had? I don't undertand why he said that would start a series of surgeries. I use to work orthopedic surgery years ago. Just curious.

Don't jump for surgery yet. Wait and get second and third opinions...
Fusions just lead to more fusions and more pain.

Deepwell --- your referring to disc replacement surgery. There are a number of different options involving different types of replacement implants. These implants take the place of the disc, provide support and sustain movement and flexibility. Success rates are excellent - but they have not been around long enough to really compare long term to fusion.

My wife Michele over the past 2 years had suffered progressively worse neck pain that drove horrible headaches. Every day she would develop a headache that ran up her neck, across the back of her head and pounded behind her eyes. Terrible pain. She also had pain that radiated from her neck all the way down her arm. This all got progressively worse.

We had MRI's done 2 years ago and they showed a partially collapsed disc and bone spurs at C5/C6 that were interfering with primary nerves. We tried a number of different treatment approaches including various pain medications, injections, anti-inflammatory drugs, traction therapy, chiropractic therapy, massage, and TENS device use. We tested lots of different combinations, but nothing worked on a consistent basis. We made lots of progress on improving many of Michele's other fibro symptoms, but the neck related pain just did not respond.

3 months ago we had another series of MRI's done. These showed that the disc had degenerated further and the bone spurs had grown. We saw 3 different neurologists and surgeons. The consensus was that the best solution would be disc replacement surgery using a titanium ball/socket type of implant. We pushed for this - but insurance flat out refused to pay. They would pay for fusion, they would not pay for disc replacement and the fact that the doctors specifically recommended the replacement procedure made no difference at all.

Michele had the fusion surgery 7 weeks ago. The surgeon goes in from the front of the neck, completely removes the disc, grinds off bone material to remove all bone spurs and re-contour the back side of the vertebrae and then forms a piece of cadaver bone to fit the space where the disc used to be. Everything is bolted together with titanium plates and the bone all grows together.

For the first 5 weeks after the surgery we were pretty bummed. The headaches remained and her pain overall was not improved plus she now had lots of pain associated with the surgical incision on her neck. She had trouble swallowing and felt like there was some lump putting pressure inside her throat. Overall, we were concluding that the fusion had been a failure and yet again we were back to square zero on her headaches and neck pain.

But then things started to improve. For the past 2 weeks she has seen significant improvement to the point where over the past week her headaches and neck pain have been very minor and some days gone completely. The surgeon tells us the full healing process will take another 3 months. But at this point we are very hopeful.

Problem now is her nose! Doctors were not happy with how a bump/mole on the end of her nose looked and wanted to remove it to test for cancer. She has had lots of basal cell carcinoma in the past. They did this last week, and the would developed a staff infection. Now her nose hurts AND the anti-biotics have brought on raging abdominal pain. This really stinks - abdominal pain and IBS had been horrid for her but that is one area where all the trial and error testing had made huge progress. I tell her its the anti-biotics and when they are done she will feel better, but it does have her pretty bummed out.

Hope our story is helpful.


Terry

 

Thank you for your replies.  I am filling out forms to have my records sent to other specialist outside of the one clinic. I am going to try and get into a different spine center.

I have tried prednisone (short term),naproxen sodium, physical therapy, going to Chiropractors, injections and rest.