Sorry it has taken me so long to write but after going to my drs appt, I came home and collapsed. My pain is still high from the lovely discogram last Thursday. Anyhow...
My surgeon is recommending a two level XLIF (Extreme Lateral Interbody Fusion). He will remove the discs, prepare the disc space for fusion, insert cages with BMP, and do it thru the side. He is hopeful that this will be enough to restore the proper disc height between the discs and support the loads put on these levels of the spine. He has warned me that this may not fix my problems but due to my birth defect the access from the side provides him with more space to insert larger cages which will allow a quicker fusion providing me with some much needed stability.
If I continue to have pain after six months, he will do a fusion from the abdomen from L3 to s1 with hardware. He is hopeful that we can get by with doing less invasive since chances are my back will continue to deteroriate down the road. You can't stop degeneration.
Common sense also makes me realize that after 5 surgeries; I will continue to have some chronic pain and I am not expecting to be pain free. I am just hopeful that this surgery can drastically reduce my pain.
Now I await for a surgical date and just want to say thank you my friends for being here for me.
Pepper, I can understand why you decided to give it a go with surgery. If you chose not to you would never know if it could have reduced any of your CP. You have been through so much & I will pray this surgery gives you some relief. Looking back we both thought this is it, have to accept & deal with living like this. Yet here we are,
with surgery in our future & hope in our hearts. We will have to continue to have faith that it will get better. I know it will. Now I have to work on the fear of surgery its self, how about you? Do you feel mentally ready?
Let us know what date it will be on. Hope your daughter is doing well, have been thinking of you both. God bless, Sammy
I was trying to think of a way to pray for you and decided to drink diet Dr.Pepper everyday at lunch and lift you up as you hopefully go into a surgery that will just be miraculous for you. You deserve this. Your family deserves this.
oh Diet, surgery??? Yup, I'd do it too...sounds like you have found a really wonderful Dr....he already has a back up plan for you....wow. I do wish you the best with this surgery and that it takes away most (all would be nice) of your pain. I have been reading and on the sidelines lately...but I still think of you often, and pray for wonderful results for you.
Hang in there Girl!! Hope it goes well and again thanks for the info on the discogram. Sorry you're still feeling it. Your daughter is also in my prayers.
I'm going back to bed.~Mush
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undiagnosed lung and back pain after pneumonia in '03, tmj, migraines,(two failed surgeries for) Kienbock's disease
