I went conservative too, for as long as I could. I had a quote “massive” rupture at L4/5 and bone chips around my spinal cord. Had a hemidiscectomy in September of 2004 wherein they also removed bone ‘schrapnel’. It was a long operation. 10 days later, I had another one. A week after that, my doc finally fused it. By then, I had permanent nerve damage in my right hip, leg, and foot. I asked my surgeon if this would go away. He said, ‘sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn’t.’ 13 years later, I still have the pain. IMHO, it should have been fused in the first surgery. After the fusion and subsequent hardware removal (the titanium was literally poking through my skin), they had to go in and remove excess bone that had grown between and around my vertebra. And because fusing vertebrae causes problems with the discs above and below the disc in question, I ended up having microdiscectomies at L3/4 and L5/S1. I understand the desire to be ‘conservative,’ but sometimes appropriate action needs to be taken in appropriate situations. I am a leg-dragger.
