After I had the second disc removed things sort of settled down, that was in 1994. And things seemed to settle down for a while but then about the beginning of 96, end of, not 90, yeah, end of, was it 90? Yes 95/96 things started flaring up again and then I had an awful lot of time off work and it took a long time, for one reason or another, I don't know why, but it took a long time to get an out patient appointment and then I had physio at this time to try and sort things out.
But nothing seemed to get rid of the problem that I had and eventually I got to see the orthopaedic surgeon who said "Well we can either do nothing and see what happens". We're sort of seven years down the line now and the medical treatments were beginning to change for back problems.
The surgeons were becoming less keen to operate on backs knowing that once they've gone in there once it was likely to lead to further problems. So he sort of said "Either we do nothing and see if it sorts itself out or you can have a total fusion, bone fusion, or we can just try this stabilisation". So I was offered either the bone graft fusion or the stabilisation and I was reluctant at the time to have a back totally fused.
I went for this option of, this graph stabilisation, which was a fairly horrendous operation to go through, but it did seem to stabilise the lower back and prevent these discs from causing any more problems. Which it did for a while. I suppose I got 18 months to two years relief from the surgery and then it just all flared up again.
And then you said just recently you've had the fusion done?
In April of this year I had a bone graph fusion. That was the only thing really that was left to try to see if it would help. And I had that done at the local hospital and it was, I suppose I was in hospital for about a week. And it wasn't that horrendous an operation or I didn't feel it was. It's one of these situations where the pain after the surgery is less than you had beforehand.
And although, being told that it might take up to a year to 18 months for things to settle down and notice any difference, at the moment I haven't noticed any difference in the pain. And the fusion you don't know about. You don't know that the bone is there or the bolts are there, you don't notice them.
It's just a case of just hoping that in 18 months time things will be different. And, I think I'm probably the same as a lot of people with chronic pain, you find someone who can do something for you and you put all your faith in them and you hope that they will cure it and when they don't you then start looking for someone else, because you think the next person that comes along will be able to do something. Although, I think, most people realise deep down that you, they will never get rid of the pain. But even if you know that you still look for someone to do it for you. |
