Introduction

Welcome to my blog on back pain from degenerative disc disease (DDD). I started to suffer from DDD in 1999 after a sudden onset of putting my pants on and hearing a "pop". I fell to the floor immediately and it flet like I was hit in my lumbar spine with a sledge hammer.
Currently, I have had more than 16 fluroscopic guided epidural steroid injections, a microdiscectomy at L4-L5 in 12/1999, a hemilaminectomy at L3-L5 in 1/2000, and a laminectomy revision at L4-L5 in 9/2009. In 6/2010, I had a spinal cord stimulator (SCS) placed with a 5 lead paddle. This required a hemilaminectomy at T10 and a painful recovery after my pain medications not being added to my post operative anesthetic plan. The SCS unit provides some relief, but there are "dead zones" in my hips and other primary locations of my pain.
Currently I am taking the following pain medications.
75 mcg/hr fentanyl patch
10 mg of oxycodone 3 times a day
600 mg of Neurontin 4 times a day
150 mg of Effexor XR

I will add more details of my current course and stories of my past management and recovery.