Hi guys,
I've had a bad back for a number of years, and had surgery to relieve pressure on a couple of disks in my lumbar spine 5 years ago.
The surgery wasnt particularly successful and i have suffered quite a bit since, however this year it has really taken a turn for the worse.
I've been back to my surgeon this week (private) and had the usual raft of scans etc, and now my condition has progressed to the L4 vertebrae slipping forwards, and then my spinal chord occupying the space where my vertebrae should be!
The doc straight up said the only way to cure this is to have spinal fusion surgery, where they basically fit a metal rod up my back by drilling it into the vertebrae... Checkout a pic of an xray of this here: http://www.bnasurg.c...ages/fusion.jpg
However, we're going to try pain killing injections and exercise before going down this route seeing as i've not tried it yet, but the doc expects i'll be having the surgery in the near-ish future (next 1-2 years).
So my question is - does anyone have any experience with this surgical procedure? How painful is it and how long is the recovery process? Also does it cure the pain/improve things significantly? The doc said it only has a success rate of 70%, and in 10% of cases it makes things worse, which is a bit alarming!
Any advice would be appreciated.
Edit: I've just turned 30 so quite young to be requiring this surgery which also concerns me. If i succumb to this surgery now does that mean i'll need more and more surgery as i get older?