Hi folks

Been lurking for a while but as I am due to have at least a 3 level fusion (L3 – S1) thought I had better come out of the wood work so to speak.

Back in the mid 70’s I slipped a disc (L5-S1) doing Tug-of-War and finally in ’77 had a laminectomy (left leg) done. Initially the results were good but things gradually got worse resulting in numerous epidurals, lumbar punctures, pain blocks, manipulation under general anaesthetic until it was decided to do a three level Graf stabilization in ’92.

I have since found out that the Graft stabilization was an experimental process (discontinued after 9 months) which involved inserting pedicle screws and then tightly wrapping Dacron artificial ligament material around the screw heads. The idea behind this was that the screws and ligaments would act like a poor mans bone graft without the difficulties then associated with bone grafts etc.

Anyway to cut a long story short that failed 6 months later (Dacron stretches ☺ ) and that has since compounded the rest of my spine. So much so I now no longer have a normal disc left in the whole of my spine. Things in my back have got progressively worse – to such an extent I can no longer work and find life is difficult to say the least.

I moved over to the Republic of Ireland 12 months ago and managed last November to get a nerve root decompression for the right leg (L5-S1) – I have little or no feeling in either of my legs and all of the other associated symptoms. The surgeon who undertook the decompression has said the left leg needs the same operation doing – primarily due to the amount of arthritis in my spine.

I was also called back to see a surgeon in the UK who after giving me an unpleasant discogram has at last agreed to take out the Graft instrumentation and carryout a proper three (or more) level bone graft. Whilst he is only giving me a 50% chance of any sort of successful outcome I have reached a point in my life where I will try anything to get some sort of normality back to my life. I go in for the operation on the 8th of August so any useful pointers on what to expect and how soon I will be out of hospital would be gratefully received – I have read the comprehensive listing of what to do pre and post op – nice list by the way!

I have to be honest my one concern is travelling back from the UK to the west coast of Ireland by ferry and car – I am guessing I will have to break the journey up over a couple of days.

Thanks for reading and yes I am starting to get nervous now ☺

Regards

Phil