A quick update on the back situation: the neurosurgeon reckons a microdiscectomy is the way to solve my (worsening) back problems, so I’ll have my buttocks hanging out the back of a hospital gown in 3-4 weeks time.
14 thoughts on “Back, again”
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What the crap is one of them then?
Keyhole op to get rid of the bit of my disc that’s pressing against the sciatic nerve. I’ll scan in the MRIs and show you, if you want ;-)
I was thinking a microdiscectomy would probably be the way to go but didn’t want to make your neurosurgeon look bad!
MRI! MRI!
Heh. MRs don’t scan with my crappy scanner, unfortunately. Which pretty much kills my “inside journalism” post :-)
I think the surgeon made the right call back in february, because the sciatic pain wasn’t the dominant thing. That’s changed since, though, and it’s all rather horrible. As much as I hate the idea of surgery, I can’t wait to get this done.
I took the time to look this up on the internet for you, Gary (no need to thank me!). Instead of surgery it appears that all you need is some BREAK-thru–h3rb4l***r3m3dy ($99.99) and a FREE! subscription to slutty russian camgirls.
You are welcome!
Seriously, though, mate — hope it all goes well for you. All the best :)
Thank god for teh intarwebs!
When I was at Uni MRI was called NMI but wee wifies got scared of “Nuclear” Magnetic Imagery so Magnetic Resonance Imagery was born. See Magnets hurt no one!
Now that’s why I blog – so I can learn things like that :-)
>>Now that’s why I blog – so I can learn things like that
It’s in that Bill Bryson book.
>>See Magnets hurt no one!
Never seen Road-runner then?
Alright for them tha’s had theirs (scan, that is not roadrunner)
I thought microdiscectomy was the song david sang on Fearless!
Even by your standards, Richie, that was poor :)
Eek – I had microdiscectomy – I wouldn’t recommend it. If I’d left it, modified my diet, did some pilates, and has some chiropractic, I would’ve almost certainly made a full recovery within 6 months. As it was, 2 years on from the surgery and the pain was worse. I was still on pain-killers and anti-inflammatorys, and the the pain now went down both legs and across my back. I decided to research my condition more, did some pilates, chiropractic and stretching, and i’m off all the drugs and much healthier. Sorry, complete newbie to the site and shouldn’t be wading in – but I’m an advocate of conservative (i.e non-surgical) treatment of LBP and radicular neuropathy now. I believe so strongly in it i’m giving up a 10 year career in I.T to train as a chiropractor so that I can help others avoid surgery they may not need. Research piriformis syndrome and psoas syndrome – two muscle related conditions your surgeon won’t acknowledge exists. He’ll also show you MRI’s with herniations and go “look, it’s obvious.” What he won’t tell you is that 70% of ALL PEOPLE have herniations visible on MRI, (as determined by samples of thousands of cadavers that had no history of back pain) with them being asymptomatic. Now i’m bored of my own voice….get a second or third opinion man..from a chiropractor and an osteopath if you can.
Good luck with whatever you do mate.
Hi Rob, thanks for the comments. I’m sorry to hear the op didn’t work out for you, but glad that you’re OK now.
To be fair to my surgeon, he refused surgery the first time and felt I should continue with chiropractic; it was my chiropractor (and then also a gyrotonics teacher) who felt that the chiro wasn’t working and that I should look again at surgery.