Lumbar Synovial Cyst

[Guest guest]

Greetings Everyone:

I am new to the group and here I am leaping in for some advice or

guidance. I have a synovial cyst severly compressing my L5 nerve root. I was

fine and dandy three months ago until after a routine gym workout, came

home and the next day had killer pain down the lateral aspect of my left leg

to my ankle.

Unfortunately, I am not new to back pain. I was a gymnast in school

and college; herniated a disc and had an L5-S1 laminectomy in my 20's

{{sigh}}. Those were the bad old days of big incisions and large instruments.

It took me over a year to walk again. Since then I have always lived with

varying degrees of low back pain kept only in check by lifting weights and

staying in the gym.

With this new pain, I thought I had herniated another disc so myplan was to

avoid doctors at all costs until the herniation dried up and moved away from

the nerve - but two months of sitting on ice packs finally had me in

the MRI only to reveal the real problem - this pesky cyst!

One week ago, I had my L4,5 facet joint injected with Celestone (

steroid). That kept me pain free for almost three days. Now I am back to go.

The Doc injecting me thinks to give it another try in three weeks. Another

Doc is suggesting a micro procedure via a one inch incision and an operating

microscope to remove a small amount of my facet joint, follow thecyst up to

it's origin and remove it.

Has anyone out there had one of these cysts? Mine is 10 x 2x 16 mm. I

would love to hear from anyone who has experienced this, or who has any

insight, thoughts, ideas or suggestions about what they did or would do. I am

truly sick of the pain but realize that surgery is not always the end of pain.

Thank you for any and all help. I look forward to being a part of this group.

Alison