Am I really too young for back surgery???

[jacquelineschi]

I have ruptured discs at L3-L4 , T7-T8,.... And i am tired of pills and being in pain.. I need to be moving around to keep fluid off my abdomen due to having a VP shunt. I was just told recently by the place that does my back injections that i am not a candidate for surgery due to "I'm too young".... Well that was mighty nice of them to consider me "too young" especially since i turn 40 this year.. BUT IT does not keep my back from driving me nutz with pain.. i want my back fixed so badly:)

[jacquelineschi]

I absolutely abhore muscle relaxing pills... I don't like drooling on myself and i refuse to take them

[jacquelineschi]

Thanks for answering.... I was told that yes, if i started the fusions the surrounding discs would eventually need fusing and they said i would be looking at a surgery every 5 years. I am currently trying wieghtloss, lyrica, physical therapy, and water arobics. I can't stand my brain on pain medication, and currently deciding not to take any. If it gets to the point i can't tolerate any of this any more, I will decide to contact a lazer spine center for the lower discs, and just get the injections on the upper discs. Its imperative i get the discs under control due to the SEVERRE spasms that it causes. I had spasms so hard from the t7 and t8 if pushes my shunt line completely out of my abdomen and embedded in my muscle wall and caused my addomen, shunt, and brain to become infected with strep.. The spasms i get are very similar to labor pains.. "Bearing down" sensations.

[femmy29]

The statement that your pain clinic said to you regarding you are too young to have surgery sounds absurd to me.  I am 31 years old and I have a ruptured disc at L4-L5 along with osteoarthritis and bone spurs at that level.  I also have a bulging disc at L5-S1.  Both degenerated discs are pushing up against the nerve roots.  Surgery has been proposed by at least one of my doctors, while my other two doctors stated that any surgeon would perform a two level fusion but we all agreed that conservative treatments should be exhausted first.

I would get a second opinion.  A good place to go to would be to a spine center within a teaching hospital.

Surgery is a big thing to consider.  I am tired of pain medications too but I know if surgery goes bad, I will be looking at a spinal cord stimulator and/or a morphine pump due to the increase pain.  My father had a best friend commit suicide after receiving a spinal fusion as there wasn't a pain med that would touch the horrendous nerve pain he was left with after surgery.

Trust me, I am not trying to scare you.  But it is true that doctors know about as much about the spine as they do the brain.  Would you get your head cut open if a surgeon said they could eliminate chronic migraines?  I just want you to consider the pros and cons of surgery very carefully.  I've been told that if a doctor tells you a spinal fusion will help reduce your pain, they are lying to you and to run not walk away.  Spinal fusions help stabilize the part of the spine that is degenerated.  Some people also get pain relief from the surgery but they are in the minority.  For many their pain levels have remained the same or increased after surgery.  

Keep in mind also that a spinal fusion transfers additional pressure to the adjacent healthy disc and it is likely that over time that healthy disc will begin to degenerate and need to be fused and then the process would start all over again with the next adjacent disc.

There are some newer technnologies out there that are less invasive and have less recovery time that you may want to look into such as the X-STOP device and artificial disc replacement surgery.

But to answer your main question, no you are not too young for surgery.

femmy