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1982154 tn?1327480325

Too Young for DDD?

I was recently diagnosed with severe degenerative disc disease (cervical), and am scheduled for my 2nd surgery on the 31st of this month. (1/31/12) I am a very healthy, successful, and active 26 year old female; I've had some accidents and wear and tear on my body over the last 10 years, but I just don't understand this level of degeneration this quickly. My neck is literally collapsing out from under me... I have herniated discs at the C4-5, C5-6, and C6-7 levels, spinal stenosis, and foraminal stenosis; all of this causing extreme pain and weakness down my right shoulder, arm, wrist, and hand. They tried the "minimally invasive" approach on October 24 (posterior laminectomy) to no avail - I have recurrent disc herniation and worse symptoms than I've ever had in my life. Now they are recommending an anterior discectomy and fusion at all three levels. The surgeon said that he has "never" had patients at my age with this level of degeneration in his 12 years of experience... I am concerned. Please advise if anyone has had similar circumstances or experience to share.
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Avatar universal
MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL
Hello dear and welcome to the medhelp forum. I understand your dilemmas. I am sorry to hear about your health. The basis of posterior laminectomy is removing the roof of the spinal canal, which houses the cord; lamina resection allows spinal cord space to move backwards and to prevent compression.  It is usually the preferred approach and is associated with better spine stability. There are a few limitations if the cord has already developed a backwards kyphotic curve from the normal lordosis, it will prevent the cord from moving back from the crowded spinal canal. Hence, if you have nerve compression symptoms, they may not be completely relieved. Other causes that might be responsible for the surgery failure are nerve root injury at the time of surgery and reherniation. Discuss your apprehensions with the operating neurosurgeon. Preop permanent nerve damage needs to be excluded before a redo surgery and fusion at the involved levels is the only plausible surgical option we have, to stabilize the spine. Wish you all the best.
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1530171 tn?1448129593
Hey 1_inAMilli,
Welcome to the forum.
Between my 2 horrific accidents and many years in martial arts
I had developed a serious "predisposition" to back pain.
Not liking at all what my doctor was suggesting each time I would see him, I decided not to go to him anymore.
With daily meditation, carefully planned exercises and strict lifestyle choices, I managed to avoid doctors and meds.
  Following a back injury at the martial arts club, my intuition told me to endure this once again. So after 3 days of being paralyzed by pain, I visited a Chiropractor who asked me to get X-rays, which I did, so he could treat me. Well, from the Radiologist and him  I was told that my back was a bit of a mess with some possible serious damage including multiple herniated discs, and I should make an appointment with my doctor right away to get thing verified.
Which never took place!!  I came across some information about Dr.John Sarno, author of books on back pain :" Mind Over Back Pain" Healing Back Pain and others, as well as having treated thousands of back pain sufferers. This information was"back saving" for me and to this day I have not been diagnosed medicated or treated by any doctor for my back issues. I am fully functioning and my back, as long as I take some precautions, avoid very heavy lifting and excessive strain, is as strong as anybody's. I do daily meditations, use self hypnosis-I am a board certified Hypnotist-visualization, EFT, eat  fresh as much as possible organic vegetables, fish, little meat -mainly pastured and take good quality supplements.
One major point in Dr. Sarno's work in  Mind Over Back Pain is his reclassification of many types of back pain to Tension Myositis Syndrome.
In your case, I sense that there may be a misdiagnosis to a degree.
Some damage and herniation, but severe DDD is be a bit of a stretch. If I were you, I would delay any decisions for more surgeries, have a closer look at alternative approaches including Dr. Sarno's and any other ones available.
If your DDD continues to cause more damage after your next surgery, what is the plan?
Oh, one more thing I remember reading in the past was a study of people
who had similar pathologies and similar scan results, showing some disc
deterioration,stenosis and herniation, yet more than half the subjects experienced little or no pain at all!
And another large study showed that after back surgery:
Group A, improved greatly.
Group B, Little or no change.
Group C, got worse.
The significant factor was childhood trauma.
Group A had the least or no childhood trauma
Group B had 1 or 2 traumatic events
Group C had more than 2.
Note: I'm quoting from memory-something I read many years ago!
Maybe it was one of Dr. Sarno's studies.
So please forgive any inaccuracies. My intention is to illustrate
that we cannot rely on what the scan shows and what the surgeon
recommends etc. There's possibly a lot more than this that plays here.
I personally know people who have had success with back surgery, and yet others with similar back issues after 2 or 3 surgeries -same surgeon- are now vegetables, barely existing.
I don't mean to discourage you from getting surgery, however, I think it is important to be thorough and very critical before you make this decision.
I hope this information helps and that you do find answers so you can get on with your life again. I know what your pain feels like.
Blesings
Niko


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