I recently found out from a doctor at MAPS that my MRI DOES show a mild bulging disc, mild arthritis, and mild narrowing of the facet joints,



this shows that there is something wrong with you, why your doctors were not truthful with you in the first place, well its pretty common for doctors to dismiss this as nothing much, because when people find out they have a problem they want it treated, however surgery is not always warranted or successful, (how do you operate on arthritis) so its easier for them to say nothing is wrong with you it is also difficult to say how this relates to your pain, is the arthritis causing pain or could the bulging discs be compressing nerves? these are difficult questions even for surgeons, operations are a last resort usually only performed after less invasive options have failed.


"I can still do yoga, and bending feels great. Especially curling up in a ball. So its not a nerve problem"


you may well be right but i don't know how you can be sure. curling up in a ball would flex your spine and that might open up the neural foramina which are holes at the rear of the vertebra were the nerves exit the spinal canal this could be decompressing them especially if they are narrow which i suspect your doctor might have meant instead of narrow facet joints.


don't give up make sure you see good doctors good luck musher

"I recently found out from a doctor at MAPS that my MRI DOES show a mild bulging disc, mild arthritis, and mild narrowing of the facet joints, all the problems are at L4 and L5. But they ALL insist this can't be the cause of my intense pain. "

Just because the findings on your MRI are read as "mild", does not mean it isn't causing you "intense pain".

How one person responds to pain can be very different than another person. One person's mild pain can be someone else's moderate or severe.

Not good, in my opinion, for a doctor to just state what yours has stated.

Pain is far to subjective to just make those kinds of statements.

" can still do yoga, and bending feels great. Especially curling up in a ball. So its not a nerve problem. "

That would indicate that the narrowing in the foramen of your vertebrae is stenosis and you probably have some nerve compression,
The fact that bending over, curling up in a ball and yoga feels good is because in these positions you are giving more space to the foramen in the vertebrae and getting pressure off the nerves.

What type of steroid injections have you had?

Have you had any diagnostic selective nerve blocks? If you had one of those specifically done to the L4 and the L5 and it provided relief of pain for you, then that would indicate that it is those disc/discs are causing your pain.

Some of your pain could be from arthritis though, even if it is mild, but surgery wouldn't help you with that.

I would suggest that you get another opinion with a spinal surgeon, either an orthopedic surgeon that specializes in spines only or a neurosurgeon that specializes in spines only.

Both and inversion table and chiropractors can make a disc bulge worse.

Did your pain increase after using either of these?

Are you having any burning, tingling or numbness in your legs? that would be an indication of nerve compression as well.

Don't give up, get another opinion from a spine surgeon in your area.

Traveling the the laser facilities is risky at best and the results are questionable at best.

You might want to check out the laser spine surgery thread on this forum. Many, many pages and many, many posts both pro and con on laser spinal surgery.

Keep searching for a good spine surgeon and other opinions.

Good luck

Fran