Well, my 2-level microdiscectomy (L4/L5 & L5/S1) is set for tomorrow morning... I'm actually looking forward to it because the nerve pain in my left buttock & leg is getting really ridiculous.

This will be my third spinal surgery in the last five years. I've previously had two anterior cervical discectomies w/ fusion (C6/C7 in 2004 & C5/C6 in 2007). This surgery is the first problem I've had with the lower back. So, it seems that my Degenerative Disc Disease (DDD) is getting the best of me so far (I'm only 35). But, I will overcome this and get back to living my life. I am overweight, so I WILL lose weight in order to help minimize the degeneration of additional discs in the future. I've already lost 25 pounds since Thanksgiving, and I will keep losing weight after this surgery.

I will post again in this thread a few days from now to let everyone know how it went. Thanks in advance for all your thoughts and prayers.

good vibes coming your way, hope you get some relief from this treatment, good job on the weight loss,

good vibes! I have disc problems too and they are horrible.

Good thoughts coming your way.
Look forward to feeling better.

Good luck, man. Pain sucks.

Good luck.
Post photos of the scars or somethin'.

Be well

Hope all goes well and you have a speedy pain-free recovery, Scott!

Best of luck, Scott!

as the chinese say: good ruck

absolutely, man. Get through this!

Best of luck!

good luck!

hope all goes well dude!

also, what's up with all the douchebags looking at this post but not sending some love?

ive been thinking about this a lot recently, id like to wish you well and would also like to hear about how the recovery is. good luck!

I hope everything goes well, and that you have lots of peaceful recuperation time, with some great music to listen to.

i am scared of medical procedures but i am sure you are more of a man than me. go get 'em.

Well, I'm home and my nerve pain is almost completely gone. Of course, now I've just got bad pain at the 4" incision site and overall stiffness in the lower back. I will be staying off work for the next month, and I'm supposed to avoid bending, twisting & lifting for at least 4 weeks. I won't be able to pick my kids up for at least 6 weeks (the worst part of it, in my opinion).

I went into surgery around 8:45 AM and I was actually back home by 12:00 PM. I thought that was incredibly efficient for a surgery under general anesthesia. My neurosurgeon said that with the size of my herniations, he was surprised that I wasn't crawling around instead of walking. Of course, I did push it a lot two weekends before my surgery by rebuilding two sections of our privacy fence that were knocked over in a storm. That was just plain stupidity on my part, but I had to get the fence fixed before my surgery, and my family was out of town and couldn't help me.

Anyway, thanks to everyone for your thoughts, prayers & support. I will try to post every couple of days while I'm home during my recovery.

Yayyy!

Here's to a speedy recovery.

Whew. Good news. Here's to no more herniated discs!

Get better so you can celebrate already!

best of luck!!

Great news!

I'm glad to hear it. Stay strong, who else am i going to keep sending CD's to in our fantasy leagues?