[QUOTE=glenntaj;658949]--though sorry for the situation that brought you here.

Just casually looking through what you wrote, you do seem to have a pretty good grasp of the situation to me. I don't see anything in your report that screams "fusion now", and getting a second, or even third, opinion is a good idea. Much of what your reported is fairly common with aging and normal wear and tear, especially if you have an active or athletic history. On the other hand, only you know how much pain/discomfort you are in, and it is true that imaging studies, MRI or otherwise, do not always correlate exactly with symptoms--what looks mild and "normal for aging" there may be producing symptoms that seem out of proportion.

A laminectomy, or even a foraminotomy at that L5 level, may be a more appropriate procedure, but you do really need another opinion and maybe another high-tesla/high resolution MRI to gauge what's going on there at this moment.

I also would like to recommend you post in our Spinal forum to tap the expertise of that batch of people:



Hi Glenntaj,

Thanks so much for your response! Last night I was looking into the procedures you mentioned because I feel if I can lose the constant sciatica and be on my feet P/T excercise and caution will do the rest! but from what I can see the laminectomy/foaminotomy involve a procedure where the bone has to be removed to get to the foramin resulting in the need for a fusion at that point becuase the bone has had to be removed to get to it ??? I want to look into that further to see if it can be done without fusion! would you mind explaining a bit about the difference between an MRI and high-telsa MRI? though I doubt there is much happening at all there because I pretty much sit on my *** all day now, a small grocery shop can cripple me, isn't online shoping and delivery a great invention! other than driving the children around I barely have to leave my home! not really something to be proud of but a relief that it is available!

I copied and pasted my above post in the spinal forum when I found it, so thank you! chat to you soon

Michelle