Reading everyone's posts about chronic pain and I have degenerative disc disease in the L2-L3 and L4-L5 but have a Harrington Rod in my back that was in for scoliosis almost 40 years ago and I believe the reason I'm in so much pain and in those areas is because L2-L5 are not part of the fusion and are taking the brunt of everything. I just had a SPECT CT Scan which confirmed the inflammation and now I'm having an MRI done today because the only thing left is surgery. What kind I don't know, waiting to see what the MRI says and speak with the surgeon. Steroid shots, don't work, did chiropractor stretching table, ozone shots, numbing shots and nothing helps. Guarantee you I'm over the pain. I can't even walk a block and I need to sit but anymore sitting doesn't even ease the pain. Can't take it much longer. Hopefully, they will figure something out, but I was told the rod will cause some distortion in the MRI readings and I can assure you, because I'm doing this without drugs and being claustraphobic that if they tell me they couldn't tell for sure because of the distortion, this girl is going to come uncorked!!!!! I wish I could find something to at least ease the pain, but so far nothing. I had my surgery done at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota in 1977. I don't think that I would last this long or something or they just didn't know what the long stretch with this rod would do. I would be dead if I hadn't done the surgery as the curve was large enough to be shoving organs out of place and giving me a heart murmur. Hope everyone with chronic pain finds the relief they are looking for.