2 weeks ago I experienced severe pain in my right leg from my butt down to the ankle when I got up in the morning. As I walked around the pain seemed to get less and less. I tried seeing if it would just go away and it would not. I went to my doctor and he ordered an MRI. He then sent me to a Spine Surgeon.

Diagnosis: DDD, Spondylolisthesis L5-S1 - Grade I-II with a synovial cyst causing pain down my right leg and may cause dropped foot.

They told me that I needed surgery. Minimally invasive but they will go in and put two pins and a cage, and a protein that grows bone in place of the disc, and remove the cyst. It will require 3 months in a back brace and all that goes with back surgery, even though it will be done through 3 small incisions. I will not be able to bend from the waist for 3 months.

I'm upset because I feel that this is a drastic measure. While I do have back pain from time to time through the years and know that it is hereditary... I'm an active person and I feel that there must be some other alternative. I've looked on the web and find that I could have the cyst removed (odds are it may come back) but it seems to me that would make more sense to try before having the surgery. Right now I can function completely during the day, no pain at night. Only when I get up in the morning do I have pain. Today all I have is numbness in my right ankle all day. I just went on Celebrex 200 mg once a day.... I was taking Ibuprofen 800 mg 3 times a day, but the doctor preferred Celebrex until surgery. They did not give me any other options except surgery.

When I call other spine surgeons now all I hear is well since you have been diagnosed we have to look at things before we would consider you to be a patient. I don't even know who to go to at this point.

I live in the Tampa Bay area of Florida.... any advice would sure be appreciated.

Pat