Herniated disc. H. Stanbro
The Doctors
I had surgery in 1994 for disc fusion @ the L5/1 level. I was a
60 year
young woman until two weeks ago when I was kicking some stones and
injured myself. I
have been diagnosed with a herniated disc @ the L4/3 level. After
having suffered for so many years before my last operation and
since that
operation was so
successful, I am very confused and frusterated by the many different
contradictory advice that I am receiving form the various therapists,
nurses and my family
doctor. Some say get up and walk, others say don't, i'm on percadets
which don't take all of the pain away now my family doctor has
said that
she wants "to take
the non-invasive approach for now and not refer me to the Orthopedic
surgeon as I was originally lead to believe. I am in constant excruciating
pain in my left leg. I
have said all along, that I do not want to wait. If it's
surgery I need then
do it so I can get on with my life. I know only too well that
the wait and
see approach is
DEFINITELY NOT the route I wish to take. Could you please give me
some direction that I can take and shed some light on what my best
options might be.
Answer
I suppose a lot depends on how severe the injury was and how much
the disk has herniated. If it seems likely that the herniation
is just
temporary, due to inflammation, etc. and that bed rest,
traction, or other
conservative measures will let it slip back into position, I can
see that the
doctors are unwilling to rush into surgery. On the other hand,
if the
herniation is not likely to resolve on its own and if you have
some kind of
underlying back problem which led to your needing the previous
fusion at
such a young age (spondylolysis? scoliosis?), maybe you should
insist on
a referral. If you are in a situation where HMO policy or other managed
care pressures make your doctors hesitant to give you a
referral, rather
than their being any real medical reason for waiting, then I would
defnitely insist in at least getting an opinion from a good orthopedic
surgeon. They are not all knife-happy weirdos who will insist on
operating without a good reason---many of them also prefer conservative
treatment where possible. Chemonucleolysis is another option
which was
out of favor for a while, but now is being done again with good
results in
many cases.Since you are in pain and you have had this experience
before, I think you are certainly within your rights to ask for another
opinion from a specialist, realizing that the specialist may end up
agreeing on a watch-and-wait management for now.
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