Hey B,
I feel your pain and it sucks! I was 19 when I was injured in a car accident; I am now 23. I have horrible lower back/right leg pain and numbness in my left leg. I have a disc herniation at L3-4 and DDD at L4-5 which also has a small herniation. I'm facing a 2 level ADR. As of now I am getting more opinions.
Once I found out I might be getting the ADR I started my research. I've come across a few things that might be helpful. One being
Disc Decompression and the other I just read about today and know very little about called
disc nucleus replacement. I will be asking my surgeons about both of them.
As of now I am struggling big time on what to do. I've done most of the minor procedures and I feel this is the last step and the 1st to the rest of my life. Such a scary thought and decision to make. We should be out living our lives having fun without having worry if we are going to pay the price at sleepy time or the next day for those few extra feet we walked or the movie we couldn't wait to see and tried to sit through at the theater. Its funny how its the little thing I miss the most.
I am happy that you are bull headed and not willing to let this slow you down to much. I tried both school and work. I couldn't handle it. If I took a pain pill I felt like I was in lala land and I didn't feel comfortable driving. If I didn't take a pain pill I wasn't able to focus due to the amount pain and would get fussy.
I wouldn't wish this on anyone and I am sorry you along with our fellow back pain managers
are having to go through all this.