How do you come to a decision about surgery??

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crittermom

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I couldn't hardly get out of bed this morning. I am in so much pain eyes filled with tears all morning. I seem to be extremely sensitive to weather changes and we are suppose to have rain here tonight. I don't want to have surgery, so scared of having back surgery, I DON'T WANT TO HAVE SURGERY but I am starting to think this is the only way I can get out of this pain once and for all. The odRAB aren't good and that scares me but I don't know how much longer I can go on in this pain. Even with the round the clock pain meRAB I am on, I wake up in pain and like this morning, I had to log roll myself out of bed. God what did I ever do to deserve this?? One of my cats had to be put down yesterday so maybe I am being extra sensitive but just really upset this morning and so sick of this pain. Every movement brings searing pain to my body.
 
my case was pretty much the same. but everyone views surgery different. when mine got bad enuf i knew surgery was my only way out. but thats a decision u will have to make. i encourage u to try every other option available to prevent surgery if possible but in my case it was a success.
 
Hi, I put off surgery for while also. I was scared b/c I'd never had any type of surgery before plus scared of the outcome. But I did alot of research and got many questions answered by the surgeon I chose. I was also in terrible pain and my condition was only progressing. My rheumatologist and PT were starting to urge me to really consider surgery. All my co-workers were as well (don't ask me how I managed to schelp to work, I just had no choice). I got to the point I had pretty much no quality of life left, was home bound except for going to work, and absolutely nothing was helping most of the pain I had. Plus I was to the point I could hardly walk for 20 to 30 feet until I just to hang on to something or plop down. When I went to the surgeon, I went with alot of questions in hand & he answered them all honestly, including the possibilites of complications or of surgery not helping, etc...

The main thing is to be informed - about your condition, about ALL available treatments & meRAB, find out what might happen if you don't have surgery (is it possible what you have could get better?). Then you have to dig deep into your gut and decide how much pain you can live with and for how long you can tolerate it. And weigh the benefits and risks of the surgical procedure. But still, only you can decide when or if surgery should be done. I personally tried to hang on (by my nails LOL) to avoid surgery, but the only thing in my case to possibly help me was surgery (I had alot of bony overgrowth and buckling into my lurabar spinal canal, which cannot be fixed by anything but surgery...though I did try everything else first)

You might want to write down everything you have done so far to try to help your pain. Write down anything that is possibly left. And write down whatever positives and negatives you can think of regarding surgery. Then you can really look at it all on paper in front of you and maybe decide what is best right now for you. You might see that surgery may seem like the best option, but maybe you'll see something else you could try. If you are not sure of some things or have questions, just ask us here and we'll try to help as much as we can.
 
having surgery doesn't make you pain free.you getting cut,cut into healthy muscles and nerves,you going to have forever stiffness and pain from that alone,other discs are bound to go,this why I put mine off.I'm bit overweight and told never will fuse,so its a big if for me.
 
I went to see my surgeon which I thought was to talk about pain managment or something. Instead he said I needed surgery. He wanted to put me down for the next month. But my in-laws were taking the entire family to Italy two months later and I knew I would never make it if I had the surgery right away. Then I had to wait because I needed surgery for something else. So I had to decide what surgery was first. So I put the back off for a year. Finally the pain kept getting worse so I went back to the surgeon and set the date. So I waited about 18 months before I had my surgery. Although I feel like I am an informed person, I was not prepared for the outcome I got. Nothing bad on the surgeon's part. Just my body. I wish I had researched it more. I had not choice but to get it done. There was never a question that it had to be done. I have had 10 surgeries for various body parts. With each surgery I had it done when I just could not take the pain anymore.
 
One thing you might want to consider is what exactly is causing your pain. I had severe stenosis due to arthritic growth, so the longer I waited the more permanent damage I did to the nerve. In fact the doctor said that he could not appreciate the fact of how badly it was from the MRI once he got in there and saw for himself. The basis for the pain should be considered. After suffering for nearly a year of 24 hour everyday pain, I knew it was time.
 
I never thought I would have surgery. When I was injured 2 1/2 years ago at work I had pt, one epidural, more pt and then was sent to a surgeon to get my denial for a second epidural overturned. I was surprised when he said I needed surgery. Workmanscomp jerked me around for another year. In the meantime the pain down my legs was becoming difficult to deal with. At night my feet would burn.Other times the tingling was horrible. What made me finally go ahead when I received the approval was an article I read in the newspaper that one of the biggest reasons people are in nursing homes is because of a fall due to leg nurabness. I have osteroporosis and didn't like the idea of falling.
I am now 2 weeks post op. Right now I am glad I did it. My legs are alive again. Sometimes I get shocks, or stabbing pains but I am sure the nerves are aggravated. I did not have a fusion or any hardware. I am still going to have to deal with the arthritis and I am having that pain in my lower right back. I am just going to have to live with that. I haven't taken any tylenol now for almost a week. Anyway, that is why I went ahead with the surgery
 
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