facetal arthropathy
 

hi to all - i just joined up today. have a lot of issues with my facetal arthropathy after undergoing spinal fusion 14 yrs back. i was diagnosed with spondylolisthesis when a chance xray following an apparent slipped disc revealed slipping of L5 over S1, grade 2. since there was nerve root involvement it was decided to fuse with bone grafts (Steffee plating) and i did ok for a couple of years. the pain gradually came back and i could barely exercise my back or abdomen to develop better muscular tone. some 2 years back the pain became suddenly different with sharp localised pain worse at sleep/waking up. that was when the diagnosis of facetal arthropathy was made. i underwent RF ablation a month back at jaslok hospital in mumbai. have been told that the final solution is of course fusion at the level of the arthropathy (one level above my earlier fusion in 1995). for obvious reasons, i am not keen at all. being a doctor however i have some rigid fixed notions of my problem and consequently in dealing with the pain too. its particularly difficult for the rest of the family - the main brunt being borne by my wife, who luckily is also a doctor.

particularly, i have had some significant mood swings of late. i still work as before though my work profile has changed - luckily, i dont have to run a practice like before. being only 47 years old has me worried though about the future, knowing fully well that the problem is going to only get worse.

anybody with similar issues?