My spring summer project for this year- my back.

I reherniated L5/S1 (had a small bulge that was corrected with Microdiscectomy in 2016) on March 5th this year. I was basically bed ridden the entire month of March due to severe low back and right leg pain, and my right foot was mostly completely numb.

Got an artificial disc replacement implant put in on March 30th. Was a 2hr surgery, and was in the hospital for 4 days after to control pain and muscle spasms.

At 7 days post op I was 100% better than pre op. Able to drive and sit in a regular chair. And some feeling coming back to my right foot.

Now 2 weeks post op and I'm getting better every day. Able to walk almost normal. And I now have to remind myself to limit bending and twisting because the pain doesn't remind me. Which is a good sign. And my right foot feels "mostly" normal again.

So my 3-6 months project is rehab and getting back to 100%

 

Whish you the quickest recovery man!!

 

Damn dude, sorry you're having to go through that. +1 to a speedy recovery.

 

man thats nuts, amazing what they can do to fix us now. 10 years ago you would have been told to just live with it. Speedy recovery to you!

 

I partially understand the back struggle. Been dealing with back injuries since getting hit by a truck back in 2004 in iraq. Get better soon! Go hard on your physical therapy.

 

Best of luck rehabilitating 100. Wish you to soon don't need to even think to limit your movements, because with help of technology, all the back concerns will be behind. Leg included.

Cheers.

 

ouch @letsgetthisdone is that age or work related?
I better start drinking milk/protein drink stuff

 

Wow that second one was a pretty severe herniation. You're describing cauda equina syndrome. Glad you're having good recovery. There's always a chance that could have gone a lot worse. I may have just asked for that L5/S1 to be fused. I'm sure you're ortho has a better picture of what's going on though.

 

uhhh, I can relate to your back problems as I also have a "bad back" and additional old injury with some dislocated vertibrae in the neck..also having some weird pain in my right leg.. I just spent my engine internals money to get a great office chair... still cheaper than back surgery..

 

I didn't want a fusion because I wanted to keep motion in the joint. Disc replacements are intended to be in place of a fusion if the patient is a good candidate (several qualifying factors). Fusions typically end up causing the next spinal level to need to be fused after 10-15 years due to the extra strain. The activ-L disc that I got supposedly should last 20-30yrs, where previous ADR's (like pro disc) are roughly 10-15yrs. And the ActivL is designed in a way that it can be replaced/rebuilt if needed. Of course, this is all new tech, so fingers crossed it works as intended for as long as it's intended.

I'm 31. Probably related to the 4 car accidents I've been in and the abuse my body went through riding motorcycles up until my late 20's.

Thanks for the kind words guys. Hoping to get into physical therapy and getting strength back and getting back up to full speed.

 

I spent a good chunk of what I had been building to buy a house, so I feel you there. Total surgey cost to me was about $8k, basically ate up my cost share with my health insurance in one shot. Oh well, cant make more money if I can't work or even walk.

 

Yea, I don't have much experience with prosthetic discs. It's mainly a US practice to do them. Canada, Europe, etc. almost never use them. The evidence of functional mobility preservation vs rate of eventual failure needing fusion anyways doesn't add up (for non-American specialists). The amount of mobility to be lost at L1/S1 is very minimal...as all of us age and have normal degenerative changes it would've approached 0 degrees regardless. I've never had a patient complain about noticeable mobility loss at anything below L3. Very different than if it was C spine which is very mobile. Even then it's not crazy bad. If you look at a video of Yoel Romero (UFC fighter) that's what it looks like when you fuse three out of seven C spine vertebrae. Obviously as a Canadian I come from a skewed perspective. Doubly so because I deal with a lot of spine emergencies in my speciality nonsurgically and my #1 concern would be preventing another cauda equina. As you found out though, disc prostheses are without a doubt very financially toxic. I hope you make a full recovery though and never have to think about this again.

 

I suggest 10kg/12kg max springs for you take it easy man

 

Funny you say that, my surgeon said the ADR's are much more prevalent in Europe and India or China. US has been slow to adopt because the one of the two original discs was terrible it typically failed in <1yr (Charite disc). And the other (pro disc) maybe 8-12yrs. Canada's public healthcare system has not approved their use as far as I know.

In lab test (I know, more theory vs real word, but still), the ActivL disc's polyethylene insert wears at about 15% of the rate the pro disc insert wears at, and the titanium/cobalt plates are stronger in any mode of force than my actual vertebrae (I'd brake my back before fracturing an implant end plate). And the forces required dislodge the end plate from the vertebrae also exceed any forces every recorded on the L-spine.

From a financial stand point, my insurance covered it, I just had to come up with the full amount of my cost share (deductible and coinsurance up to my out of pocket max) which was $8500. Good news I won't have to pay anymore medical bills the rest of the year, for physical therapy, etc.

The hope is obviously the disc lasts a very long time. And hopefully in the future there is an even better disc to put in. Or as you said, the L-spine doesnt have much ROM anyways, so if in 20yrs the disc has to come out and I have to get fused, so be it. For now the ADR offered the potential of much faster recovery and a better 10yr prognosis.

 

I have about 5 more weeks before I can start PT, and then I should be 80-90% recovered at the 6 month mark. From there, it could be 10-18 months to realize my "fully recovered" point. Which should be at least a return to 90-95% function (still very good) up to basically being 100% normal. Either way, the doc said i could return to tackle football in a year if that was my thing.