Degenerative Disc Disease

I've been dealing with DDD for about 12 yrs. also. Had C6-C7 fused nearly 3 yrs. ago and it helped tremendously. Before I had it done my left arm hurt so unbelievably bad most of the time. All Vicodin was knock the edge off. My neck was the worst but I pretty much have it all the way down my spine. 2 yrs. ago I had low back surgery, not fusion though. He went in and cut off numerous bone spurs and shaved the L5 disc. It helped a fair amount because before my left leg was numb all the way down to my toes after just a few minutes on my feet. A lot of days I had to use a cane. Now I never have to use a cane. I still have low back pain though, just not as bad. I also have a lot of migraines, (not to mention diabetes and high BP). The doc was hoping the neck surgery would remedy the migraines, or at least help some but it didn't do anything for them. I lost my job of 12 yrs. due to missing so much work from migraines. Luckily I had a disability plan through work that gets me by.

BTW: The gabapentin someone mentioned earlier helps my migraines so I only have 3 or 4 a month but it doesn't seem to do anything for back pain. I have a buddy it helps so it's worth a shot IMO

If you decide on surgery check the Dr out real good. All it takes is a Google search to find out the skinny on a lot of things