"They ended up going in through the front of his neck and removing a disc and pinning in a artificial disc."
One of my clients pioneered this technique - I understand it is extremely successful.
JB
I have the same back issue as your wife. Mine has been troubling me since last summer and for a while the pain was approaching 9 and sleep 0. I skipped the surgery and had a cortisone injection which has helped coupled with occasional physical therapy. Now I have more good days than bad.
I recommend for her to lose weight if she needs to, walk more, stand don't sit, don't reach or lift much and strengthen her core muscles. Oh, and learn to live with tingling in your foot.
Good luck, it will get better.
His issue was that the disc was bulging into the spinal cord compartment, pinching the spinal cord. The MRI images were amazing to look at. You could literally peer down into his spinal cord at any "station".
This put an end to his softball game, but he has full mobility.
>...Oh, and learn to live with tingling in your foot.
One word of advice, DO NOT ignore tingling or partial numbness anywhere.
Have a co-worker that had tingling and slight numbness in his arm. He gave it some time to go away, then attempted to just deal with it. After a couple months, he noticed that his arm was getting weak and the muscles were starting to atrophy.
Finally went to a doctor and found out that he had a pinched nerve. They re-located a nerve in his elbow. He permanently lost a significant percentage of strength in his arm.
Another co-worker had some numbness in his arm. It didn't get better so he went to a doctor, then to the hospital. He had a pinched blood vessel. If he had not gotten transferred to a larger hospital, he would have had his arm amputated. They re-located the vessel and he fully recovered.
Can be serious stuff. I do understand about sciatica and back problems.
I walked into Bruce's office at this time. He was lying on the floor redlining a survey. He said he couldn't sit in a chair, so I sat on the floor with him and we discussed my survey problem. As you know, he now does his own field and office work, so I would say that was a successful outcome.
I have sciatica. I see my Doc every six months or so, to monitor the condition, particularly the numbing of the foot. He says that most of these cases are successfully resolved without surgery.
I have had the most success with a mechanized desk at work and at home, so I can alternately stand, sit and use a drafting chair. Lots of walking, tai chi and bike riding combined with a good daily routine from a competent physical therapist has made the most difference. I threw out the muscle relaxers and pain pills. Those were truly debilitating.
I was hoping that the drinking beer with my compadres treatment would be the most effective, but unfortunately, it is exercise and stretches.
