Dr. Corenman,
Thank you for the quick response, it is much appreciated! My surgeon told me that the material compressing the nerve was an extrusion from the disc, and that when he was operating, removing the extrusion would have been unnecessarily risky. Additionally, he mentioned that the extruded portion of disc could possibly reduce in size over time as it is reabsorbed by the body. Have you seen patients experience this before? Also, am I being overly ambitious expecting a complete relief of numbness by the 10-day post-op mark? Again, thank you for this wonderful service, and I hope you have been able to get some good skiing in this season! I used to snowboard at Keystone/Vail every weekend when I was attending CU-Boulder!