Lasik back surgery

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I just had major back surgery with four rods implanted screws, spaces, etc., put in for a condition known as spondylolisthesis, which also included 3 fusions. It is where the vertebrae slide over the vertebrae below it and make a "jog" in the spinal column. I had two incidences of it. It was first diagnosed at age 20 (only one spot) and my doctor told me to put off surgery as long as possible. So 46 years later I had it fixed. I am now 5 weeks post surgery. My pain, including the surgery pain is all gone. It will still be a year recovery and healing, and I cannot do anything, but I am doing very well. WE walk 2 miles every morning and more times during the day to walk the dog. This, by the way, is the only therapy. No bending, lifting, twisting. The doctor said he could have done it as a minimally invasive surgery with a small incision and 8 hours of surgery. He chose to make a larger incision and take 4 hours to do it. I had a neurologist as my surgeon. A friend has had multiple surgeries by this man.

Research the doctors, not so much the procedure. I knew in my case that surgery was the only fix. I had done everything else including acupuncture to alleviate the pain, but in the end. . . a stabilization surgery was the only thing that would make it better and "fix" it.

I am thrilled with the results and looking forward to continuing the healing process. It is a long road, but worth it. My limp of 15 years is nearly gone and I can walk anytime. Prior to this, I could only walk in the morning after a pain pill.

Do some research and then pick a doctor who has a good track record.

Dale

My brother-in-law has had 2 spinal fusion surgeries performed on his back. Both times he almost crawled into the hospital, but walked out 2 days later.

glad your wife is doing so well. but its still a one on one thing.not all things work good for every body.

Depends on the problem. My son-in-law had the surgery in Dallas (they accepted their insurance) and it fixed his stenosis but didn't fix all his problems. They said he would have to have regular surgery for the rest. He said it felt 50 percent better and he would live with the rest.

midnightsadie wrote:
friend had it done felt good for about a month,then same old pain. just my opinion each person will be a different case. ME I talked to my doctor he said if it was so great all the hospitals would be doing it.

Your doctor does not tell the truth.
MD's do what they know. If they do not know how to do something it must be hogwash or bad.
Examples
arthroscopic carpal tunnel release
Key hole gallbladder surgery
coronary bypass surgery including minimally invasive bypass.
Te list is endless.

All have been poo poo'd by surgeons. THEY ARE NOW widely accepted procedures.
This is why we had to travel to various parts of the country for procedures to help my wife with her spinal cord injury problem. The answer in New York was major surgery and rods in the total back, over 6 months to recover and severe loss of mobility.
We researched and traveled to get opinions. Result 4 minor surgeries later with a few days downtime and my wife is slowly coming off her heavy duty meds. Oxycontin and oxycodone are done with. Neurotin slowly being DC'd. She is completely pain free for the first time since her injury in 2010

New procedures are not automatically covered by insurance and it can be many years before a good procedure is covered. I believe CABG surgery was 7-8 years before coverage by all insurance. companies

Brother-in-law had his orthopedist do it to his lower back with two small incision and he is pain-free for the first time in years and that was two years ago. Not my laser spine Institute.

friend had it done felt good for about a month,then same old pain. just my opinion each person will be a different case. ME I talked to my doctor he said if it was so great all the hospitals would be doing it.

My Lumbar Stenosis may be a little different than yours, I have three bulging discs, one joint almost without any part of the disc and one bone on bone. Due to three joint replacements(one hip, two knees), a recent(five years ago)hernia repair using the mesh, several BCCs. prostate radiation treatment and being almost 77 years old, my family practice DR. and my oncologist are not really in favor of any major surgeries, especially on my back.

I too was downing hydrocodone tablets like candy and finally told the DR, no more, lets do something else. Finally ended up with a new MD, a very young pain specialist(aren't they all young today) who agreed with me that until I was pain free or nearly so, stretching and core strengthening was out of the question. Solution, Lumbar Epidurals.

The first year, it was every 3 months, the last two were a year apart with the last one being about two months ago. I have had a prescription of 40 hydrocodone for well over a year and most of them are still in the bottle. For the last week my 15 year old grandson and I have been removing the landscaping from our front yard, required moving about two yards of soil from a raised planter and in his Mother's front yard a whole lot of weed wacking and the removal of a 500 pound stone fountain and 10 years of accumulated heavy clay pots full of soil and dead plants. My daughter doesn't have a green thumb. Yesterday I gave the DGS half a day off to go hang with his friends while I took a really big load of yard trash and fountain to the landfill and off loaded by myself.

My stretching and core strengthening is mostly done as part of physical labor. It has taken almost two years to find stretching movement that my back will tolerate and most of that is done while laying in bed in the morning.

I did take a pain pill last night but it was for very sore muscles and not to mask nerve pain.

I'm glad I listen to the DR and tried the epidural treatments first, but, if the current course of treatment is no longer effective, I will seek out the laser treatment.

Spine institute does them a lot here bulging disk all the do is suck out the fluid and inject a material in that fils the disk