Im told all back surgery is a chance of 33.3pct. 33.3 pct you will be better, same odds for getting worse or staying the same. (My PCM, 2020, when she told me to ice and ibuprofen until I could get up off the floor and get my butt moving. Mri was a mess. ) I dont like the 66pct chance of surgical risk AND being sane or possibly worse.
You will hear all kinds of things about back surgery, including horror stories. I've never heard the 1/3 percentage. Who told you? It is also important to understand that some procedures have less chance of success than others. Not all back surgery is equal. Some are 90% (about the best I've seen), some are 50%. Perhaps that's where the 66% comes from. Cut the difference. And npage has a good point about experience of the doctor. My doctor did over 1000 of my procedure before he did mine. Experience matters.
My doctor said 50% of people have a 50% reduction in pain. Even those odds don't seem that good to me. I believe my pain doctor is one of the best in our metro area. I asked him if his mother had the same conditions I have if he have her do the MILD procedure and and he said "certainly". I feel like I have been on a hamster wheel for all these months, but I am just tired of having the pain every day.
Thanks for bringing this up. I never heard of MILD. Looking at the promo material, I can see how it may not help everyone because it is so non-invasive. There just isn't a lot of material removed. It looks very promising for the right indicated cases, however. You have to sometimes trust your doctor based on their experience if this is indicated for you. And since it is so non-invasive, it won't eliminate your choices in the future. Good luck and I hope it works out!
My story is simply that
back surgery gave me my life back. That's the TL/DR. Sometimes you need the surgery. I'm sorry if that goes against the "never surgery" opinions I always see. Until you walk in someone's shoes that have constant 8 to 10 pain every day, you don't know.
I had suffered with sciatica for 30 years. I managed it with exercise, weight control, occasional ibuprofen, etc. all that time. It would come and go until one day, it didn't go away. I spent a solid year doing all the conservative stuff: exercise, PT, hot, cold, steroids, etc. Many times, your body re-absorbs the stuff (swollen ligaments, disc) causing issues. Tissues shrink and the problem is solved. This is why I don't think it is ever wise to get surgery unless you've spent a
solid year trying other things.
Over my last year of constant pain, it took me 10 months until I even got an MRI. That might have been foolish because the radiation techs sat me down and asked me if I was OK to drive home. I told them of course I was, why do you ask? They answered, "Oh, your doctor will call you."
My doctor was stunned by the MRI and said that my brain adapted over the 30 years of on and off problem. I would post my MRI here but I'd rather not put something so personal up here. Suffice it to say, a lay-person could see the problem from across the room. My spinal cord was 75% compressed by the stenosis.
I decided on a bilateral hemilaminotomy. That's still not very invasive compared to open back surgery, but it is way more aggressive than MILD. I still have bone structure to hold me up. I had no implants or fusion. Since surgery, I've given up all jumping sports and running. I also limit my lifting and am very careful in how I do lift. I try to keep lifting anything to a minimum of 50 lbs. Otherwise, I can do pretty much anything and I don't even have spells of sciatica anymore.
For me, it was a 6 month recovery. Really, it was only 4 weeks of being super careful, but I'm glad I didn't do anything aggressive for 6 months. I slowly ramped up.
Near the end, before surgery, I nearly passed out from a sneeze. It was true level 10 pain. Most of the pain was actually in my calf. Sciatica is funny that way. Sneezes were very dangerous when driving. I almost ran off the road. It was that bad. That was the 10 pain. The 8 to 9 pain was just me standing up. At work we had "stand up" meetings. I had special permission to sit. I just couldn't stand without gasping for air from the pain.
So, yeah, surgery gave me my life back.
