Back Pain Support Group
Back pain is one of the most common reasons people seek medical care. In fact, about 3 in 4 adults will experience back pain during their lifetime! The term back pain includes pain affecting the neck, midback and low back. Acute back pain may begin suddenly with intense pain but typically lasts fewer than three months. Usually, chronic back pain is persistent, steady, and...
After the many different attempts that my PM Dr. has tried to get me to have a 3 ephirdural injection... this time I took my husband to my appointment with me. Isn't it amazing that when you have a spouse there and an intern how much more information you get?
The Dr. claims that so much acidic fluid is leaking from my disc & that is why it is taking so much to get the injections to work. He never said that to me before, but I still do not want to have another one done. I feel as if it is a waste of time & money.
He gave a better description of the "proceedure" that he suggests that I have done. Before he said it was inserting a needle and remove the disc.
It is a discectomy (I have already had on open surgery one done almost 2 years ago), but it is a Dekompressor Discectomy. They insert a probe through a needle that removes "some" not all of the disc. This is suppose to again do what the first open surgery did. Stop the pressure on the nerve. BUT, I perviously weas told by my surgeon that I had a tear. He didn't say anything about a herniation. And this Dr. is looking at the same MRI from 18 months ago. Another problem, he is fairly sure that my insruance company will not cover it. They are going to try to get it preauthroized... just so I know what all my options are. It is a better solution than a fusion... and less recovery time than the open surgery, but I'm still not conveniced it will work or that it is worth it.
Next Insurance madness... he decided to put me on Lyrica. Which is of course for nerve pain. My husband asks, after we are out of the office, why hasn't he put you on this previously? If it is for nerve pain and that is the majority of your pain.. why is he starting that now? And why is it in addition to the Lortab? I assume it is to see if the can get better control of my pain, so I can stop the lortab. But I am just guessing here.
BUT the pharmacy lets me know that my insurance company wants the Dr. to fill out some kind of form to get the medication authroized. So I'm in a holding pattern waiting to see if my insurance company will authroize me using it.
I'm sick of my insurance, but I am very thankful I have insurance. I would be in serious trouble if I didn't. I'm already in debt because of my various health issues. I know I would be homelss or close to it, if I didn't have any at all.
Has anyone had the Dekompressor discectomy done through the needle/probe?
The Dr. claims that so much acidic fluid is leaking from my disc & that is why it is taking so much to get the injections to work. He never said that to me before, but I still do not want to have another one done. I feel as if it is a waste of time & money.
He gave a better description of the "proceedure" that he suggests that I have done. Before he said it was inserting a needle and remove the disc.
It is a discectomy (I have already had on open surgery one done almost 2 years ago), but it is a Dekompressor Discectomy. They insert a probe through a needle that removes "some" not all of the disc. This is suppose to again do what the first open surgery did. Stop the pressure on the nerve. BUT, I perviously weas told by my surgeon that I had a tear. He didn't say anything about a herniation. And this Dr. is looking at the same MRI from 18 months ago. Another problem, he is fairly sure that my insruance company will not cover it. They are going to try to get it preauthroized... just so I know what all my options are. It is a better solution than a fusion... and less recovery time than the open surgery, but I'm still not conveniced it will work or that it is worth it.
Next Insurance madness... he decided to put me on Lyrica. Which is of course for nerve pain. My husband asks, after we are out of the office, why hasn't he put you on this previously? If it is for nerve pain and that is the majority of your pain.. why is he starting that now? And why is it in addition to the Lortab? I assume it is to see if the can get better control of my pain, so I can stop the lortab. But I am just guessing here.
BUT the pharmacy lets me know that my insurance company wants the Dr. to fill out some kind of form to get the medication authroized. So I'm in a holding pattern waiting to see if my insurance company will authroize me using it.
I'm sick of my insurance, but I am very thankful I have insurance. I would be in serious trouble if I didn't. I'm already in debt because of my various health issues. I know I would be homelss or close to it, if I didn't have any at all.
Has anyone had the Dekompressor discectomy done through the needle/probe?
If you had a Discectomy done, and it didn't work, why would you want to have it done again?? Let me tell you one thing, Lyrica is use for nerve pain, and Lortab is use for the mechanical pain, that is not nerve related. If your pain is both, mechanical and nerve related, then you need to be on both.
Before jumping into another surgery, go get a second opinion, even a 3rd one, because any Doctor that does 3 epidurals and want to go for surgery next, I do not trust! another thing.... If your MRI is 18 months old, is not good! My NS told me that with people that suffer from spinal issues, an MRI every 6 months is what's normal. He is looking at pictures that are over a year old, and he is suggesting surgery? RUN, RUN AWAY from this Doc!
Find yourself a good Neurosurgeon, and a good pain management Doctor, and then go from there. I don't think that this Doctor has you and your well being in mind, he is thinking of his pocket, and the BMW that he wants to buy.
Take care,
I have called my Surgeon that did the discectomy the first time. I'm going to go see him and get his opinon. I think this PM dr. is up in the night. I dread going to a different Dr. I don't want anyone thinking I'm a drug seeking nut. =)
I had an annualar tear in L4 that leaked acid on nerves with shotty care and now I have perm.nerve damage.That is work comp for you.
I agree research your options and try and get new test before you decide on anything.Gentle hugs.Nuerontin is for nerve pain and is a lot cheaper insurance companies like cheap.
What the PM Dr. is talking about doing is removing some of the gelatin like inner part of the disc by using a large needle and sucking it out to reduce the size of the bulge.
Also there really is no such thing as a smal or little herneation. If a disc is herneated that means it blew out. Think of it like a tire with an innertube inside and the inner tube is full of jello. you get a hole in the tire and the innertube pokes through, that is a bulge, when the innertube pops and the jello leaks out that is a herneation.
Hope this helps
Still have not heard anything back from my Dr. office regarding the lyrica, so I have no idea what is going on with that. I have an appointment made with the surgeon who did my neck fusion and my discectomy on July 20th. I am hoping he can shed some light on things.