This morning I received an email from Maria- “I have had disc replacement surgery, and it was the biggest mistake I ever made. How can you recommend this? I have had no relief, and had to go through major surgery and a long and painful recovery.”
She elaborated on all of the ways which the surgery had adversely affected her life.
Maria, please understand this- and it is important for all of my viewers to be aware of this; I try to make my posts educational, informative, and sometimes entertaining. My wish is to provide useful information about all of the back pain options out there. Everyone’s back pain situation is unique, and some approaches to relief will not be appropriate for other individuals.
In my post, I did not recommend disc replacement surgery- if anything, I feel I came across as too skeptical of the procedure. I am sorry that you did not get a positive outcome. There are people who are perfect candidates for the procedure, and even when everything is done perfectly, those people do not get relief. I have spoken with patients who had a 100 percent improvement in their pain- complete relief- following their procedure. I don’t know- and clearly at this point in this relatively new technology- I don’t think anyone knows a completely guaranteed way of identifying which patients will derive benefit.
In my area of back pain management/treatment, I will always lean towards the more conservative, less invasive approach to relief- but for some it simply is not enough. For those patients, surgery is the best option.
Again Maria- I am sorry you did not get the relief you were hoping for. I hope you can find an approach that works for you. Thank you for your question.
In the mean time, I am preparing some other video posts while I am still here in London.
Be Well,
-Andy
