[gretchen]

After being taken to the emergency room with unholy screaming pain up and down my right leg and back (paramedics had to take me from my bed because I couldn't move), I had one done last July and I had a massive rupture at L5-S1, also a herniation at L4-L5. The films were looked at by my doctor and he said it was the worst rupture he had ever seen. He sent me to a neurosurgeon and the doctor said I couldn't wait to have the surgery and the material had to be extracted as well as the herniation in L4-L5 pushed back in. Two weeks later I was in the hospital having a double microdiscectomy and was in the hospital for four days. The reason for the long hosp. stay was that when they opened me up the material that had blown out of the disc had already fused to my spinal cord in a dangerous place and I could have been left paralyzed if it was not removed perfectly. Needless to say, a 2 hour surgery turned into 4.5 hours...

Well, August 16, 2008 will be my one year surgery anniversary and i must say, the surgeon did a superb job because I have no pain except the minor pain one gets if they overdo an activity.