The History Behind It

For those who know me personally would probably know that I have had my back problem since a long long time ago. I first had an acute lumbar pain attack sometime back in 1999. Acute would not have been an exaggeration as I remembered having to literally crawl on my hands and knees to go to the bathroom. But then again, after a few shots of painkillers and a few days of resting in bed, I was always back to normal. Over the years, I have had a few more attacks every now and then but I have learnt to live with it and basically, live "around" it.

In 2003, I had another major attack and this time the doctor decided to do an MRI on it and for the first time we found out that I have had a prolapsed disc or more commonly known as "slipped disc". My orthopedic surgeon at that time decided not to conduct any operation but instead gave me a steroid injection on my prolapsed L4/L5 disc. 

Injection on the spine, with a huge needle, while fully alert; is no fun I tell you. 3 nurses had to pin me down while the neuro surgeon did that procedure!

After that, I actually survived for almost a year without any sciatica pain. But some time in 2004 when I was working in Egypt, it started developing again. I was working in a construction site in the dessert and I remembered limping around site and having to pull myself every time I need to get on to our MPV.

Finally when we moved back to KL in 2005, and while I was starting a new project, I braved myself to undergo a microdiscectomy operation at Ampang Puteri Specialist Hospital. This basically involved cutting the part of the herniated disc that was impinging on my sciatic nerve. The doctor advised that I need to be in the hospital for a week, then rest at home for another 2 weeks and then only to start traveling again after a month. I was young (-er, back then) and was so eager to go back to work that I was only in the hospital for 3 days, back at work the next week and I remember being on the aeroplane again the week after! Okay, okay, it's too late to start lecturing me on that now...

This time I was okay for much longer. Apart from lumbar pain every now and then (Thanks Gavin, for reminding me of my acute lumbar pain attack after our football match in 2007!), I never had anymore sciatica pain until around early 2010 while we were living in Brisbane. I went and did an MRI again and it's showing that the same L4/L5 disc had herniated again. Nevertheless, the doctor in Brisbane was not so keen in doing an operation so we left it there. I'm back to painkillers and physio therapy and seems to be managing well.

The "managing well" was not for long as the pain started again this year and got worse and worse over time. At one time I was really limping.  Just after Raya this year, when it got so bad, I went to PCMC to see my doctor now and we did another MRI. It's showing that the disc is protruding even further and this time, on both sides. My spinal surgeon proposed a Spine Fusion Surgery. If you read the link, you would see how scary it sounds - it involves surgery of course; removing the prolapsed disc then inserting a graft bone and finally using 4 titanium screws to hold the L4 and L5 in place. I went for a second opinion at another hospital and the spinal surgeon there proposed just to do three things:

1. Increased medication - including steroids etc.
2. Physio therapy
3. and REST!

He admitted me to hospital for three days and then forced me to stay home for a week. I got a bit better after that and continued my twice a week physio session and I was okay... until...