Did your back cause you to have leg and foot pain? They also said I have arthritis in my spine. God being 44 sucks!! :mad:

So they can do this non invasive? What exactly does that mean? They don't actually have to cut my back open?

..

Look I agree w/ Spott, yet again!

Sorry man I could of used some backup when the falcohaulics were giving me a hard time in the parking lot.

as far as medical advice on the board, one of our smartest guys on here took out a cyst near his eye with a hot poker

I blew that same disc out of my back a few years ago and had to have surgery. All they did was go in and take out any remaining loose disc material and did some enlarging of the nerve canals in my spine since they said I had stenosis. I believe the Doc called the procedure a lumbar laminectomy.

My GF this summer. She was all kinds of worried cause the Dr. said she needed surgery. Everything turned out ok though.

Her (39 y/o 5'2" and 145 pounds) and I (33 y/o 5'7" 195) moved Railroad ties about 6 months ago. Not regular railroad ties, but railroad ties that had been sitting in a drainage ditch (street run-off) for about 2 years. We moved a couple of them out of the ditch and saved the ones that were sunk in the mud for last. The first few were probably close to 250 pounds or so...not too bad. But then we got to the ones that were water logged. We both got it out of the mud and when she straightened up....OWIE!!!! She hurt her back really bad....Keep in mind she's a small girl to be doing stuff like this, but she's full of gusto.

So I helped her to the house and helped put ice on it while she called the chiropractor

After going to the Chiropractor (who told her to stop lifting heavy stuff like that) a few times she finally went to the Dr. and got x-rays. Dr. told her that she'd have to have surgery on her Budging Disk. She was almost inconsolable.

Got an appointment for a neurosurgeon and .....

The surgeon said that she didn't need surgery!!! Just some pain meds and a TENS unit. If that didn't help in 6 month then the discussion of surgery would be revisited.

It's not a little over 6 months later she's had 3 epidurals of cortisone, some pain and muscle relaxant meds, and uses the TENS unit every other day. We don't think she will need surgery.

Moral of the story....visit the surgeon first. See what they have to say. If they say surgery then I'd get a second opinion just to be sure.

Neurosurgeon has more experience with that sort of injury than the Dr. so they will be able to tell you more about your options than your General Practitioner.

Yes, I did. My foot would go numb. I need a three level fusion, but I'm trying to put it off for as long as possible. Just changed insurance, so I've got to find a new doctor.

Try having your back now 13 years ago.

I've sold implants (screws/rods/biologics) used in spinal surgery for the past 15 years throughout the Midwest area, and have spent many an hour in surgery with dozens of surgeons. The level of expertise amongst the community of spine surgeons is extremely variant. The most important thing you can do is research the quality of work done by surgeons in your area. While most, if not all, are well intentioned, the differences in aptitude and knowledge is frankly frightening.

In Tennessee, Kevin Foley is highly regarded, as are a few others. Spine surgery done by anyone less than a top-tier surgeon is much more of a crapshoot than you think. Find out who the best is in your area and go to them - you don't want to have to do it twice - end of story.

Anyone in the Cox network in Southwest Missouri?

In all fairness, the heat was just for sanitary reasons.

Watch the video that explains the whole procedure. It is totally non invasive with over 80% success ratio.

I did that about three years ago. I guess I'm part of the 20%. :(

It's good if you've just got a herniated disk, but I don't know what it would do for deterioration. It creates space for the disk, but I don't think it's meant to strengthen your spine. And it's expensive. It was $3600 three years ago, and it was done by my chiropractor. If you do look into it, make sure your insurance covers it.

I had a 360 fusion done about 7 years ago by Dr. Paul Olive. I was told by a number of people in the medical proffesion he was "The Man" when it came to back surgey in Springfield. He did an excellent job on the part of my back he worked on.




PS

At the time he was part of the Cox network.