Question
i am a 40 yr. old mother of 3 boys, 9 and twins ages 8. i have been on permanent disability for 5 yrs. i had backsurgery in 2001, i had ruptured l-4 l-5 along with diagnosis of degenerative disk disease. the surgeon i had was going to fuse the area and supposed to make me better, unfortunately he really messed up my back, he did not fuse it he just scraped it out, make along story short i ended up not being able to work at my manager position at a restaurant or anything for that matter, long story short found out too late this surgeon has messed up alot of people. so recently i have found out i have 2 more ruptured disks along with severe narrowing of the spine, i have severe muscle spasms along with scar tissue and pain radiating down my left leg along with numbness and tingling in my foot. i was also diagnosed with degenerative osteoarthritis and have already had a total knee replacement on my right knee and was told my left knee now needs replaced. i have just seen a new doctor who thinks he might can help relieve my pain by doing a left l3 l4 l5 selective nerve root block. do U think this will help me and if so how long will this last? how soon will i be able to tell if it has helped? also i have severe narrowing of spine , what causes this and what can be done for it.. also i have 2 herniated disks in my neck what should i do about this. if this procedure does not help my back and leg pain should i consider surgery, what do they do for the narrowing of spine?? please respond thank you. mother in trouble

Answer
Hello Mavanee;

Boy, there's a lot to answer here. I'll stick to just a couple, as I'm about to go out with my son.

The nerve block should take effect immediately, if that is in fact the problem... it's actually a diagnostic nerve block, meaning, uh, let's see if that's it. :) The worst that could happen is that it doesn't help.  The best is that it identifies your problem.  The block typically lasts for some weeks, I believe.  Narrowing of the spine...  I think you mean stenosis.  This is a condition that closes the holes where the nerves exit the spine.  The surgery they do for it, I like to call a roto rooter job, they use a surgical dremel tool to open the pathway.   

Discs really love to motions, traction and extension.  that goes for the neck and low back.  If it were me I would explore motions and activities that force the spine to move into those positions.  I'd ask a local chiropractor how this may best be done.  I'll update my disc page on the website to include a lot of the terms I'm atalking about here, but for right now it's a great primer for lumbar disc injury... www.dynamicclinic.com, articles, lumbar disc.  Hope this short answer helps...Dr. Peter Carr