I too have been diagnosed by my pain center that I have two herniated disc and degenerative disc disease. I was told years I am unable to take narcotic pain pills because they cause me to have dis-urea.I have endured back pain, shoulder pain, and hip pain for years. I worked the lab in hospitals about 30 yrs. and a hair stylist in between at the hospital for 40 yrs. So I thought I was just having side effect of working hard all those years. Since the MRI, I have had 2 facet steroid injections, 2 injections in L4 and L5 of a stronger steroid I guess, and finally the nerve burning last week.
But prior to the rhizotomy, I experience this severe pain in my groin when I walk anywhere more than five minutes. When it hits me I am unable to move my left leg without severe pain. I told the pain center doctors about this over a month ago but they didn't address it because they were dealing with L4 and L5. I was told over 10 years ago that I had a problem with L4,L5, and S1. I'm not sure if I had the herniation of these disc at that time.
Last week before the procedure I asked the doctor if this procedure would stop the groin pain. He said he couldn't because the insurance wouldn't pay. So now I walk in fear of the pain hitting me. What can I expect next?
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Originally Posted by Hopeless
Docs do react differently. I had one doc tell me I needed surgery based on my MRI and I did not. (Mild lumbar herniation that healed on its own.) Then years later, I had a doc tell me that my MRI had some abnormalities but nothing that he would not expect for someone of my age and that the abnormalities were nothing of any real concern. He gave me a copy of the MRI results after he had discussed it with me.
Personally, I think the doc should have told you something similar to what my doc told me after MRI, abnormal but insignificant. To not notify you of ANY abnormality is probably because he did not want to have to discuss it with you since he seems to have considered it insignificant.
The question is........ Are you experiencing pain or problems? If you have NO symptoms, he probably thought it of no significance.
I now have moderate thoracic herniations, multi-level facet osteoarthritis, degenerative discs, and a few other things that I can't remember at the moment.
I would ask him to give you a detailed explanation of why he stated your MRI was "normal" or did he mean that it is insignificant.
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