Shoreline

Hi Onyx, Any doc that is willing to medicate you to the point that you no longer feel you need to consider fixing a problem that could be fixed isn't doing you any favors. If there is a clear cut mechanical fix, like stabalizing an unstable spine or decrompressing crushed nerves or discs, the longer you put it off, the greater you reduce the odds of success. Pain becomes imprinted into neuro pathways, acute pain turns to chronic and all kinds of changes occur that will ensure a 6 is the best you will ever reach on a pain scale unless you want to spend the next 30 years steadily increasing the amount of meds you take and allowing the meds to rob you of a fullfilling life.

As far as chance of death during fusion surgery, it's highly unlikely. There is no greater risk of death during fusion surgery than any other surgery or anyone that has general anesthesia and simply doesn't wake up. The risk of death from GA is 1:10,000. I don't know anyone that has died on the OR table, but I need more than one hand to count the number of people that have died or killed themselves from the meds nobody seems worried about taking, as long as they provide relief. The meds they are using now have only been used on non terminal patients for 10 years, they have no clue what's going to happen to someone that's spent 30 years in PM, has the tolerance of a Bull elephant and still complains when taking 2000mgs of morphine a day.

Even when surgery fails and they agressively manage pain, they typically shoot for 50% relief, or a 5 on the pain scale. That's on good days, You will still have bad days and you may still have days where pain meds don't touch the pain. You also have to live with the choices you made and if you choose to find a doc that's will prescribe enough dope to put off surgery for a couple years, who do you blame when surgery fails? The surgeon because you choose to allow pain to imprint or the PM doc you begged for more relief so you didn't have to have surgery? The younger, healthier and more motivated you are to get your life back, the better your odds.

Your greatest chance of moving on with your life is to consult with several surgeons, do some real research and make an informed decsion. Ask lots of questions, why does doc A want to go in from the back and use pedicle screws and rods and bone from your own hip, why does doc B want to go in through the front , completely remove the dosc and use cages and bio morphic protein mixed with crushed bone? There are dozens of variables in fusing, Internal or external Bone growth stim or none at all, enzymes to promote bone growth, The type of brace or no brace at all, even hardware selection and the aproach whether it's posterior or anterior all have an effect on the outcome. There is no concensus on the best way to do a fusion and which hardware works best. However if the concensus is you need to have surgery all other factors are just variables.

If the bottom line is you need surgery, the longer you put it off the greater the chance of failure. It makes post op pain management harder when you go into surgery taking more meds than the surgeon has ever prescribed. It makes rebuilding the strength and muscle you loose while masking pain harder and loosing any weight you gain while trying to avoid pain tougher to loose. The option of pain management will always be there, the window for any chance of succesful surgery will slowly close.

Good luck, Dave