I have been pledged with back pain mostly following an accident at work in 1997, but also due to some degenerative diseases that run in my family....i.e., degenerative disk disease and joint disease, stenosis.  Many doctor's tell patients there is nothing they can do for some of these problems.  But I have found out that there is hope and there is a surgical intervention that can help should other methods fail, such as diet and exercise, physical therapy and pain management therapy.

After years of pain, numbness and tingling in my legs, feet and toes, as well as my lower back, I came across a doctor who helped me more than I thought possible.  I have been a advocate of chiropractic therapy, massage, reiki and meditation, all which helped me to some degree.  Oh, and yes, I even tried acupuncture for my back pain.  I did achieve some results with all of these, but none long term.  In October 2005, I went to see a Dr. Curtis Cox in Jefferson City, MO.  As I walked in with my 75+ year old mother, he could quickly tell my gait was much worse than hers, as I used a cane and could not straighten upright.  He was able to look at me and feel confident in saying that I surely must suffer from spinal stenosis by the way I was walking. 

Of course we took x rays and an MRI over the next weeks, and then set up for a Myelogram. Many spine doctors will order an MRI but not all will go as far as a Myelogram.  It is a procedure that involves putting a dye directly into your spinal column, and it's a little painful, and costly, but it is also sometimes the only way to really identify the problem.  This proved true in my case.  The x rays didn't really show too much of a problem, only some narrowing of the spaces between some of my lumbar vertebra's, but the Myelogram showed, without a doubt that I had three herniated disc and stenosis and nerve involvement.  I was scheduled for back surgery to preform a PLIF, Posterior Lumbar Intervertebral Fusion.  We elected to use a piece of a donor bone instead of the old method of taking a piece of bone from my hip.  I had the surgery in Feb of 2006.  It was a lengthy procedure and I have an 8 inch incision down the middle of my back.  My pain was intense after surgery for a few weeks, but then it slowly became less of a problem.  I could stand up better and slowly, I also found no need of a cane any longer.  You see, every vertebrae has nerves that run through these tiny little holes in the bone, and once you develop stenosis, which is a build up of bone matter in the little holes, the pressure on the nerves causes pain...back pain, leg pain, hip pain, ankle, foot and even pain in your bottom.  Your toes get numb and numbness can also run from your back down your leg.  Life can be tough to go through with that kind of pain.  You will probably suffer from depression brought on by days of pain and inability to do the things you once could do.  I did.  I suffered for a long time.  But, Dr. Cox had given me a reprieve from pain.  He had solved my problem.  In addition to removing all the build up on each lumbar vertebrae, he removed the damaged disc from between the third and fourth vertebrae and replaced it with the donor bone.  It took me about a year to totally recover from this surgery but it was worth it.

Now, for the next surgery.  This is the one I want most to tell you about, but I had to give you the first story so you would fully get the benefit of the next one.  Remember, my first surgery was a PLIF of L3-L4, and now how I came to have an XLIF of L4-L5.

Last year, 2008, I began having severe lower back pain that went into my groin and inner thigh.  It was a different pain than I had before, but it was bad enough for me to go back to see Dr. Cox.  I made my appointment with him, only to find he had moved from lumbar surgical corrections to cervical (the neck) surgical procedures.  He referred me to Dr. William Blake Rogers at Spine Midwest In-corp in Jefferson City, MO.  So, I sat up an apt with him.

Dr. Rogers did similar tests on my back to include xrays, but skipped the MRI, now that I have metal in my back from the PLIF, it's safer to just do the Myleogram, and as I said previously, it is the best test for a good diagnosis anyway.  I don't particularly like the Myleogram but if you're in as much pain as I was in you will not hesitate to have it done.

On my consult with Dr. Rogers after my test results were in we found out that the disc between the lumbar vertebrae's 4 and 5, had now herniated and was nearly gone, thus causing pressure to be applied to many nerves of the lowest part of the spine which connects to many areas of the body.  My only hope for relief was another spinal fusion.  I shuttered at the thought of the surgery itself and the pain, and the long recovery.  But, Dr. Rogers had come up with a new procedure called the XLIF, the Lateral Lumbar Interbody Fusion, and he explained how it would work for me.

The XLIF procedure requires you to be placed on your side for surgery and they make a much smaller incision on your side than what I had on my back.  Unlike the other surgery this way doesn't upset major back muscles and nerves, therefore helping you recover quicker.  Many patients go home the same day or the next day.  He also had to make a couple of small incisions in my back for a probe to be inserted.  Now, there are some pretty technicial almost robot-like tools used to preform this procedure.  It's very hi-tech.  Once he removed my damaged disc, he replaced it with a bone-block implant and it re-alines the bones and lifts pressure from the nerves.  A few screws were then drilled into the bone and placed to hold the bone-block in place.  This is a fusion, as I  had before.

Compared to my previous surgery, the XLIF only took 3 hours compared to 6 hours, and all things went very well.  We decided I would spend the night at the hospital due to my blood pressure being alittle lower than normal, but otherwise at that point all was good.

Now that I've told you all that, if you suffer from back pain and you've been told there is nothing you can have done to correct the problem, or just to live with the pain and handed a prescription for pain killers, check out this proceudre and see if it is right for you.  My younger sister suffers from spinal stenosis and was told by a spine specialist that there is nothing they can do.  She is only fifty-one years old and that's too young to suffer with back pain for the rest of your life.  Grant it, there are things we can do to help our backs.  Exercise is very improtant and strengthening of your abdominal muscles can be a great support for an ailing back.  Stenosis is the narrowing of the openings in the vertebrae, which is different from disc degeneration, which my sister doesn't have, or at least the doctor didn't say she did, but again, she didn't have the myleogram, only an MRI.  I believe if she had the myleogram they might find that the stenosis affects the health of the disc, therefore it becomes inflamed, and with that you have swelling.  I hope she doesn't have to live with her back pain for years as I have.

I did suffer a complication after my surgery, but that's another hub altogether.  Barring the complication, my back has healed.  I am now 6 months out from my surgery and I still have some back pain, but no numbness.  It's hard to tell in my case, due to the complication, if my surgery can be called a total success, but I do feel it was much easier to go through than the PLIF.

I can tell you that you can learn more about the XLIF by checking out Dr. Rogers website at http://www.spine-health.com/video/lateral-lumbar-interbody-fusion-xlif-video.

Check it out and call your doctor to see if it is offered for your back problems.  Hopefully you can get the help you need to change your life.