Tuesday, August 14, 2012

New Surgeon - New Results

Hello everyone, it's been a loooonnnngggg time. I finally got hooked up with a Pain Management doctor to possibly get a Spinal Cord Stimulator(SCS). Had a trail and it worked pretty well. The next step was to find a surgeon that did this work. Found one at Jefferson Neursurgeons. I had given them my MRI's, CAT Scans and X-Rays ahead of time. The representative from Medtronics, the SCS people, was with me at the appointment. After dealing with the nurse for a while the Dr. cam in and introduced himself and then said he saw all my films and that "your back sucks", all the facet joints are blown and your spine looks like Ridge Ave (a very crooked street in Philadelphia).

He thought that my pain was being caused higher than where the pain was actually located (L3-L5). He wanted me to get steriod injections at L1-2 and L2-3. Medtronics was not happy, guess he saw the commission going out the window. I made an appt with the Pain Med Dr and scheduled the injections for Friday August 3rd. Went to hospital and had same day surgery. I needed to be there by 6:45 AM and was out in my car by 10:30 AM. The injections WORKED! I have not had any sharp pain in the L3-L5 area of my back since. Still have pressure and discomfort, but so far so good. I have a follow up with the Pain Med Dr to schedule a rhizomoty, where they burn the same nerves the injected. This is supposed to give up to 2+ years of relief. Hey any port in the storm.

Thanks for looking

Matt