After having severe pain from spinal stenosis and a slipped vetrabrae I had surgery. I was on about 10-12 pain pills a day and working full time. Of course my work was suffering and I only went to work and came home and did nothing on my 3 day weekend (I work 10hr days). I haven't cooked for over a year. One good thing is I work at the same place my husband does and we are on a van pool. I finally saw a surgeon just for an opinion and decided to have surgery. I had surgery almost 4 wks ago - L4-5 Lumar interbody fusion with decompresion - it was not as invasive as some are. All the pain from in my legs is gone except a little nerve pain at night. I still have tailbone pain and the doctor was not sure it would go away with the surgery. I actually didn't have hardly any pain from the incisions or from the cadaver bone they put in. I can't believe how much this has helped me. I am now on 2-4 pain pills a day and feel so good that I am going back to work part time next week. I have two more years and I can retire. Now I feel like I can make it to that point as I wasn't sure before. My husband really thinks my tailbone pain will go away but I am not so sure. Anyway, I want to thank all of you for your posts. This board has been my life support; reading through posts and looking up other people's answers to pain managment was so needed and helpful. I am sure I will continue on the board since I still deal with some pain. I just wanted you to know that I was doing well.