As far as I know, surgery is your only option, unless you want to continue as you are.

I would go with a fusion and not ADR. There are still too many unknown things about long term use of ADR.

I have read about serious complications and problems if the ADR fails and has to be removed, it can be life threatening surgery.

ADR have not been around long enough in this country to know how long they will last or what the complications will be if they start to fall apart after years of being in place.

Also there can be problems if the disc is not lined up correctly, especially in the lowest lumbar level.

Good luck

Fran

Well, for $75,000 the ADR doc is "willing to give it a try" LOL!!!!
I am working on:
1) Deeper and deeper levels of relaxation and balancing the muscles.
2) -30 degree inversion, or Egoscue "Static back", or Spineworx.
3) Walking for tonic (posture) muscle endurance.
4) 60 seconds of Burpees or deep knee bends for heart, cardio, and to get things loosened up. My doc says "Get hot and sweaty". Walking doesn't do that for me.
Note some people have successfully rehydrated their discs to some extent with decompression by inversion (NOT the machines like DRX 9000) and Pettibon system.

My P/T "wizard" said most people in my situation would have had surgery by now because the pain was so bad and that's what is suggested after 3 month of P/T (PLEASE - "specific tissue such as ligaments have been shown to take YEARS to recover from relatively minor insult -Woo, Gomez, and Akeson 1985)).
Too bad there is so much pressure to go the surgical route / few success stories of anything else.

I wanted to post to say I am healing. When doctors tell you there is nothing more you can do other than injection, pills, or surgery DON'T BELIEVE THEM! I had a doc in January 2009 tell me the only option was injections and "we have to start somewhere". What, on the path to surgery?
That would have been the absolute worst thing I could have done at that critical point of my life. Instead I figured out the muscle imbalance that was causing my pain and fixed it.
I would go so far as to say, for 95% of the population, surgery is for the impatient or the lazy. Believe me, I know what pain is. And everything below my waist was affected to some large or small extent. Yes, I said everything.
My ortho spine doc blasted me last month and told me "I was going about it all wrong" as "there is no such thing as cause and effect". Well he was wrong, dead wrong.
One of my big problems was an inhibit left leg adductor and corresponding overactive right leg adductor. I was literally dragging my left leg/hip behind me, pulling it forward with my right leg adductor. When I walked it was like some monster from one of those scary movies. Although you would never see it because my body was so good at covering it up.
I walked 6 miles yesterday with NO PAIN! 3 months ago I would be in severe pain / herniated disc from 3 miles and 45 minutes was tops.
I am sitting for over an hour with NO PAIN.
I can go in the car for 15 minutes with no pain and 2 hours and my left leg is not going numb anymore.

So it can be done. You can heal. Sort of makes sense as I'm sure people have been injuring their backs for thousands of years. God has to make the body be able to heal. It wouldn't make any sense for Him not to.

Have faith.

I wanted to post to say I am healing. When doctors tell you there is nothing more you can do other than injection, pills, or surgery DON'T BELIEVE THEM! I had a doc in January 2009 tell me the only option was injections and "we have to start somewhere". What, on the path to surgery?
That would have been the absolute worst thing I could have done at that critical point of my life. Instead I figured out the muscle imbalance that was causing my pain and fixed it.
I would go so far as to say, for 95% of the population, surgery is for the impatient or the lazy. Believe me, I know what pain is. And everything below my waist was affected to some large or small extent. Yes, I said everything.
My ortho spine doc blasted me last month and told me "I was going about it all wrong" as "there is no such thing as cause and effect". Well he was wrong, dead wrong.
One of my big problems was an inhibited left leg adductor and corresponding overactive right leg adductor. I was literally dragging my left leg/hip behind me, pulling it forward with my right leg adductor. When I walked it was like some monster from one of those scary movies. Although you would never see it because my body was so good at covering it up.
I walked 6 miles yesterday with NO PAIN! 3 months ago I would be in severe pain / herniated disc from 3 miles and 45 minutes was tops.
I am sitting for over an hour with NO PAIN.
I can go in the car for 15 minutes with no pain and 2 hours and my left leg is not going numb anymore.

So it can be done. You can heal. Sort of makes sense as I'm sure people have been injuring their backs for thousands of years. God has to make the body be able to heal. It wouldn't make any sense for Him not to.

Have faith.

awaq1:

Certain conditions can heal without surgery, and certain ones cannot. Glad to hear that your condition has healed without surgical intervention. Time is sometimes the best test of whether a condition has or can heal on its own, and your patience was rewarded!

Dave51d, thanks. You are correct about surgery being necessary for some. And most people are bent on surgery, pills or injections rather than doing all the work to get better anyhow. So that is all they will believe in. Horses for courses.
But I wanted to post for those who, like me, have been told they can never heal and their only choice is surgery, etc.. I would say more conditions can heal on their own than you might think. Besides, getting too hung up on what shows on an MRI or X-ray can give one the impression that nothing can be done to relieve the pain other than surgery. But what shows up on film is caused by some postural or muscle tension problem. That stuff didn't just get there for no reason.
Fix the muscles and the pain goes away. That concept is rarely mentioned so people never even know that they don't have to live in so much pain. Why is it so well hidden in our world? Why do people have to suffer so much unnecessarily? Pain is a choice, not a guarantee. But you have to do a lot of digging to find the solution. IME most people don't want it. I guess they're not hurt that bad or as one guy told me "I'm a pain guy". Well, he sure found the right injury for that!
What I DON'T like is my neurologist telling me when I was at my worst and in need of some hope, "It's a progression, discs bulge then they herniate. None of my patients ever get better. Nothing works for them, ever."
I have black discs and broad based disc bulges at L3,L4,L5. L4 is herniated. L1 is decimated from when I broke my back. Bone on bone at L4,L5. Bone spur filling 1/2 the foraminal opening at L4, L5, S1. Mild to moderate canal stenosis. At 40 my doc said he would expect this level of deterioration in a 65 year old. None of these conditions can heal (other than the herniation receding) but I am getting better nonetheless.
I would like to point out that this has been progressing since 2002 and without correct treatment it would not have gotten better on its own.

awaq1:

With all of your stated pathology, you have a remarkable attitude!