Hi Debi, and welcome to the board! You'll find lots of us here who have had fusions, and we'll do our best to try to help you through your back scenario.
Every surgery has its risks. This is a big surgery with a long recovery, but most people do just fine and are able to return to work and get their lives back. You'll always need to be careful of your back, but you'll be able to do a lot of the things that you may have put on hold for now due to pain. That said, some people end up with more pain than they started with and regret ever having the surgery. Some people end up with nerve damage, either temporary or permanent. Some people will experience the "domino" effect, that is, the levels above or below the fusion go bad because the vertebrae there are more stressed because of the fused area. There's always the possibility of paralysis and even death during surgery, but that's very rare. (As you can tell, we won't sugar coat our answers around here. You asked, so we tell!
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For me, having my second fusion 1 1/2 years ago was the best thing I could have done. It had been 30 years since the first one. It's a long story that I won't bore you with. I've ended up with new pain that I didn't have before surgery, which was inevitable due to the length of my fusion (14 levels), but I'm way better off now. This pain is helped by pain meRAB and rest. My old pain from before the surgery wasn't touched by the pain meRAB, and resting was no longer taking care of it, either. My problem is different from most on here, though. Most people really do fine after this surgery, once they've recovered. I could name dozens of people from this board who were here for a while, then were able to go back to work and do things with their kiRAB again, and we haven't heard from them again except a few who occasionally pop in to say hi and give us a word of encouragement.
If you read through the sticky at the top of the page called "post surgery tips," it will give you a pretty good picture of what the recovery from fusion surgery is like. It will also give you a ton of great suggestions that will make your recovery easier.
Have you gotten at least 2 opinions from either orthopedic surgeons or neurosurgeons who specialize in only the spine? Try to educate yourself as much as possible as you move ahead and make decisions. This is a good place to ask questions and get feedback.
I wish you the best!
Emily
