Thanks Laura/Jim. And Richard, I hope you are able to somehow find time to add to this discussion.
I'm in Canada, where we are much less litigious, for better or worse. I have seen cases where there should have been serious repercussions for the professionals involved, but we usually just have a different attitude up here .
I am quite prepared to undergo a second surgery for facets if necessary, if it does what it is supposed to...but then the first one should have been enough too, shouldn't it
I am not prepared to live with more pain. The medications are making me very ill...I am intolerant to almost every one we have tried so far, life threateningly so, with anaphylactic reactions. But the pain without them is intolerable, as it is with most people.
I guess what I am questioning is the 'grading' of the damage in the facet joints. My latest (three-phase??) bone scan, done to see if I was a candidate for injections, showed mild to very mild arthropathy in the left L4 and bilateral L5 facet joints.
How does this translate into being much too severe to consider any treatment other than fusion or injections?
I understand and agree with what you said..there are fewer options here...but those opinions above are radically different. I guess that is why I am so set on going to Germany right from the start, instead of having them trying to fix any messes that are made here because of lack of experience.
You said:
If I could isolate my pain to the facets, I would personally have NO problems trying out any one of the many different facet replacement devices now available in Europe one the surgeons have a bit more practice. That's just me. I don't mind getting lots of surgeries as long as I have reason to believe they'll do me lots more good than harm.
If I end up with facet pain, I would have to agree with you and your position. But shouldn't most or all of the pain from herniated discs be relieved when the new discs decompress things by restoring the space between the vertebrae? I haven't been able to get a doctor to give me a satisfactory answer to this.
But back to my original question...doesn't everyone who needs ADR or fusion have
some arthritis? Doesn't it go hand in hand with the damage to our spines? Does DDD include herniation, arthritis, stenosis, etc (all inclusive)? Or does the diagnosis of DDD only have one or two symptoms? Sorry if I'm not being clear...I am pretty foggy this morning. Your first paragraph in your first post suggests that, and why.
But the surgeon I spoke to suggested otherwise. If mine is very mild, and he said it was too severe, what in the heck is acceptable over here?
How many people here have had post-surgical facet pain from ADR surgery done in NA compared to surgery done in Europe? (I assume most have gone to Germany here, to various surgeons?)
I guess until I came to this board, and recently spoke to a surgeon who first brought up the facets as a reason to not do surgery, I had not put much, if any, thought into them.
Thanks for getting this far in this rambling post. The more questions I get answers to, the more questions I find.............