I have been fighting sciatica pain in my back/leg for the past month. Finally got through the wait for an MRI and my diagnosis is the S1 disc is compressing my spinal cord/nerve. My options are:
Door #1: Do nothing except take meds and rest
Door #2: Physical therapy and injections/meds to encourage the nerve to "calm down"
Door #3: Minimally invasive surgery to clean out that vertebra (micro laminectomy)
Factors affecting my decision:
I need to be able to work without restrictions
I leave for a 2-week trip to Ireland in 28 days. This has been rescheduled 3 times so far because of Covid so we are determined to go this year. However, it will require quite a bit of walking which I can not do right now.
Finally, I have a golf trip booked to Myrtle in 7 weeks.
So my questions to the THP family is who has been through this? Did it help? Recovery time?
I am leaning toward the surgery and have it scheduled for April 8th. I have a small window of time to change course though. I have had a similar procedure before on my L4-5 disc six years ago. However, I do not remember how long I was sidelined from it. The PT and injection route does not offer any guarantees of success and I can not continue to work much longer with this pain. So it would be a gamble especially with the clock ticking on those upcoming commitments.
Door #1: Do nothing except take meds and rest
Door #2: Physical therapy and injections/meds to encourage the nerve to "calm down"
Door #3: Minimally invasive surgery to clean out that vertebra (micro laminectomy)
Factors affecting my decision:
I need to be able to work without restrictions
I leave for a 2-week trip to Ireland in 28 days. This has been rescheduled 3 times so far because of Covid so we are determined to go this year. However, it will require quite a bit of walking which I can not do right now.
Finally, I have a golf trip booked to Myrtle in 7 weeks.
So my questions to the THP family is who has been through this? Did it help? Recovery time?
I am leaning toward the surgery and have it scheduled for April 8th. I have a small window of time to change course though. I have had a similar procedure before on my L4-5 disc six years ago. However, I do not remember how long I was sidelined from it. The PT and injection route does not offer any guarantees of success and I can not continue to work much longer with this pain. So it would be a gamble especially with the clock ticking on those upcoming commitments.