Deciding on surgery?? (Artificial Disc Replacement, Lumbar Spine)

[lunaazul21]

Hi there,
I'm new to this forum. I’ve gotten acquainted with several awesome people on this site. I want to thank those who have responded to my questions.

Ok, well, finally, I have decided to post about my boyfriends situation.

He is a 31 year old who has been active all his life. Playing soccer, avid rock climber, mountaineer, runner, suffice to say he loves the outdoors. Back in 2006 he was working as a field biologist, hurt his back transporting heavy equipment, tearing down an old cabin and rebuilding it. He started having pain in his back. Went to a Dr. in New Foundland (was living there for a while) and was told he had sciatica. But nothing was done, just watchful eye of the back, living with on/off back pain.
Recently 6 months back, his pain worsened. Before it would flare up and would go away. But now it's a chronic, 24hrs/day excruciating Pain. We have seen two Dr.s here in Houston, an orthopedic surgeon Dr. Stanley Jones and a neurosurgeon, Dr. Aldama.

The diagnosis after two MRI scans, herniated L5.

Dr. stanely Jones preformed an epidural steroid injection but that did nothing for my boyfriend. This Dr. Jones said if he was his son, he would Do surgery right away, Fusion surgery that is.

Then we decided to see Dr Aldama the neurosurgeon. He decided we take the conservative approach, build up my boyfriends’ core muscles.

This is so scary thinking about surgery and reading a lot of horror stories about fusion surgery, a lot of people still in pain after spending so much money and going through a traumatic experience.

But coming to this website, it has given me hope. Right now my boyfriend doesn’t want to hear anything about surgery; in fact he thinks nothing will work for him. I don’t want him be in pain anymore and I’m hoping that he elects going to an out of country Dr.
What worries me about my boyfriend is that he says that he is living at a 25% capacity, no bueno! I admire his strength, he does get out bed, goes to work (he’s an adjunct biology professor at a community college and will soon start doing biological field work doing bird point counts out on rice fields for an environmental company). I see his strength and courage to continue. He is neither on any pain medicines nor muscle relaxers even though he hurts when sitting, standing, reading, eating, bathing, doing EVERYTHING AND ANYTHING in Pain.




Please,
Has anyone had a herniated L5/S1 and had an artificial disc replacement?
What type of ADR did you get?
What Dr. did you see, in what country?
What was your recovery time?
How much was your surgery cost?
Do you have any words of advice for my boyfriend?


Thank you so much for your time and any words of advice


Claudia

[bigdogchief76]

Surgery is always a very difficult decision.

However, your boyfriend is exactly in the same boat I was 16 days ago. Then on the 18th of March 2011, I had an artificial disc put in at the L5-S1 (Pro-Disc L)

Still to early to go rock climbing, but, based off of two weeks of data, I'm glad I made the decision to go with the ADR. It is a night and day difference. No more back pain; just surgery pain right now.

I would simply encourage your man to at least engage the idea to see a doctor who specializes in this procedure. Get as many opinions as possible. However, don't delay. If his back does not heal with conservative treatment AND nerve pain continues, he risks permanent damage that will be with him the rest of his life.

PM me if you want more data (ie doctor info, insurance info, etc)

[lunaazul21]

Thank you for your reply. I will PM you with more Questions.
-Claudia

[I Suffer]

Fusions scare me too. The sound quite barbaric to me. As a biologist I'm sure his fears are not unfounded. ADR like the Neo Disk and the M6 make the most sense to me.

I have neck issues and the most relif I have gotten is from chiropractors and home traction.

Doctors told me that disks don't heal. That is not entirely true. In some situations disk herniation go away on their own. There is something call ambulatory traction for lumbar issues. It's a traction belt that the patient wears. It take weight off the disk and and transfers it to the hips.

Here is what a google search revealed when I typed ambulatory traction belt. lyrics we're all boat people - Google Search

Here is a video of the belt YouTube - Spinal Decompression, Ambulatory Spinal Traction, Vertetrac, Dr. Steve Horwitz