I have had 5 back surgeries to clean and repair my spine due to spinal stenosis and crushed disks in my back. I was sent to neurologists to find why I was having so much pain in my back. They ran many test including MRI’S. They said I needed surgery to fix my back. The neurosurgeons operated and fixed my spine. The pain got better for awhile. Then they said I needed hardware to support my spine. I’ve been through 3 more surgeries to install more hardware and to replace my hardware from titanium to cobalt. The last surgery left me totally incontinent. The neurologist’s finally sent me to a urologist to treat my incontinence since the damage is not reversible. Because the pain is getting so bad, the neurologist sent me for another MRI and I was told I needed another surgery to fix more damage further up my spine. So far I’ve said no more surgeries.
A word of caution, be careful of spinal surgery because things can go wrong. Ask lots of questions and seek other options that my be less intrusive if possible. My neurologist’s and neurosurgeon’s were great just saying be careful. I’ve needed more back surgeries about every 5 years. Good luck on your medical quests to get better. I am left with a lot of pain, incontinence,and lots of hardware.
