September 28, 2011

Fwd: L4/5

Not sure the email went through so trying again...

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Charles Wachter <charlesnorbert@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, Sep 27, 2011 at 9:23 PM
Subject: Re: L4/5
To: Jeremy Edney <jeremyedney@gmail.com>


I had a massive L4/5 herniation as well. 20mm. I had a laminotomy  and micro-discetomy by Dr. Hyun Bae and it was like a miracle.

Turns out there were two herniations at that level. An old one and a new one which combined to form the massive single herniation. Couldn't walk or carry even a laptop without it making the severe pain worse. Was out for 6 months before I did the surgery. I fought it for eight years, each relapse getting worse until the surgery. 

I had the surgery in 2010 September and walked for two hours that weekend (walked out of the hospital out of pain) and was skiing double black diamonds casually in April. I have to watch how I sit, asI get the odd twinge, but the man created a miracle. 

One of the reasons he said it was successful was that because the herniation was so big, there isn't much left to leak anymore, so it should be very stable. I have no other herniations or bulges at other disks either which helps a lot in the recovery and future prognosis. 

I am glad I fought off surgery for as long as I did and only decided to get it when it was clear I was incapacitated for good without it. 

It was a scary surgery, not so much for the surgery itself, but my fear of what would happen if it didn't work. Tell Herm that I really feel his pain. It is a horrible, crippling thing to deal with pain like that day in and day out. Mine never really went away and sort of gnawed at me until the surgery. 

I wish him luck. Make sure if he does elect for surgery to get a few different opinions. I chose my surgeon because the first time I saw him 6 years ago, he told me he could operate and make the pain go away, but that if I stuck it out for four months and rehab the pain would most likely go away that way too, which I did. And the pain went away. So he wasn't the kind of guy who operates on everyone that walks into his office. (The give a guy a hammer and everything looks like a nail adage.) As he said I could survive without surgery all those years ago, when I came in three times worse, I trusted him when he said I wouldn't recover without it. 

There is a lot of talk about artificial disks. Be very careful if someone recommends them. If that is there first recommendation, then know they are pushing something that is being field tested. It has been around for awhile, but the surgery is enormous and if they fail, the revision surgery is actually life threatening. So opting for a keyhole surgery with a world expert like Dr. Hyun Bae, fully minimally invasive with a small bandage on my back was my choice after a lot of research.

Picking someone who has done a million of them also, statistically, is proven to increase the positive outcomes. Dr. Bae operated with a microscope. 

Hope you feel better. I have a picture of my MRI (with my annotated notes) attached,

- Charles

On Wed, Sep 28, 2011 at 12:54 AM, Jeremy Edney <jeremyedney@gmail.com> wrote:
Hey dude,

As it turns out Sara's Dad has a brutally herniated disc (L-4/5) which the Dr. said (much like with you) is the worst herniated disc he's ever seen.  Anyway, Herm is trying to figure out what to do and I thought you could shed some light on what happened in your case (from the diagnosis & details of the hernia through to surgery, how they did it etc. and also recovery)...  just email it to me if that's cool and I'll forward it to him...

Thanks man!

J



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Charles Wachter