Maybe No Surgery

So, after talking over my surgery situation with my physical therapist (a family friend), he recommended one more orthopedic surgeon to get an opinion from before I made any decisions. Since he’s pretty familiar with most of the ortho’s in this area, I figured it made sense to follow his advice. So, I made an appointment with yet another doctor for this coming Monday, the 28th. However, since my surgery was scheduled for the 25th, that wouldn’t do much good! I cancelled the surgery for this Friday and didn’t reschedule at this time, so I could wait and see what the other two orthopedics say after reviewing my situation.

I met with Dr. Haider today, the doctor who did my uncle’s fusion surgery 6 months ago. My P.T. said this doctor tends to lean towards fusions more than alternate methods, so I was all prepared for him to give me a quick “Yes, you need surgery.” Thank goodness I was wrong! Though it does make things more confusing, it’s still nice to hear someone who is as knowledgeable as him tell me I don’t need surgery right now! Basically he said that my L4 disc is in really bad shape (as we knew already), but that there is no need to worry about paralysis. He said a fusion wouldn’t be needed at this point, but if I get really bad sciatica pain again sometime, a diskectomy might be appropriate, fusion if the low back pain is intolerable. He gave me a booklet of things to do to help keep my back in shape, plus encouraged my doing physical therapy exercises to strengthen my core and back muscles.

I see the other doctor on Monday morning, and now I’m not sure at all what to expect, but I’m thrilled to not be getting cut open this Friday!