Question
I have three bulged discs in my lumbar spine and have extreme pain in my back and entire right leg to the tip of my big toe. I had my first ESI and have my next scheduled; However, I don't feel any relief and still have to take up to 8 oxycodone's per day to get mild relief. Is surgery going to be my only option? I'm only 27 years old and newly married with the hope of having more children. I can't take this pain any longer and don't know what to do. Please help.

Answer
Hi Kristy,
Thanks so much for your question.

I am truly sorry to hear about that. Back problems seem to be very common. If you don't respond to nonsurgical therapy, then surgery may be your only option.

But don't fret, there is good news. There has been great advances made in the area of surgery. It's called minimally invasive surgery. To be more specific, the procedure doctors use to repair discs, is called endoscopic disectomy.

What they do is make a few small incisions and use a scope to repair what damage there is. This is sometimes done in the doctor's clinic on an outpatient basis.

If you're familiar with sports, then you have probably heard of athletes getting their knees, shoulders, etc. scoped to repair ligaments, remove damaged cartiledge and bone fragments, ect.. Before scoping was used, players would be out of action for several months or more after surgery, depending on how severe the damage was. Sometimes, even when the damage was minimal, players were sidelined 6 to 8 weeks. Since they developed minimally invasive surgeries, like scoping, the same procedure that kept a player out for 6 to 8 weeks, would now allow the player to return to action in 7 to 10 days.

Here are a few websites you can look up endoscopic disectomy and other procedures and therapies for disc problems.

www.spineuniverse.com
www.spineonline.com
www.back.com

I really hope this helps and if you have any more questions, please don't hesitate to ask me anytime.

Thanks again,
John McKinzie