What condition are they treating?

Excellent question forumnut.

I will also ask, why is the spine surgeon saying fusion?

It is excellent to seek more than one opinion, 2, 3, even 4 are good.

Also good to seek out the opinion of both orthopedic surgeons that specialize in spines only as well as neurosurgeons that specialize in spines only.

Personally, I found that neurosurgeons are far more apt to proceed with a spinal fusion right away, instead of trying more conservative types of spinal surgery.

Once a spinal fusion is done, it can not be undone. Were as if one does less radical spinal surgery and it is not successful, one can than opt for a fusion.

I have a friend who had a fusion. Her recovery was long and slow, but a year later she has almost full flexibility in her low lumbar spine.

She believes that her recovery was slow and long because of her age. She was 69 at the time, but, as she puts it "i would do it again in a heartbeat. It gave me back my life."

Good luck

Fran

Hello, Sorry to hear of your wifes suffering. I am 27 and had been suffering with back pain for almost three years now. Amougst other things, my main back problems were that one of my discs had completley gone and the next disc up was extemley damaged. After much debate I had a spinal fusion with sinthetic? bone graph and solid rods (for where there was no disc)but also flexible rods used to support the part of my spine with the very damaged disc. Before my operation I was in agony every day and every night,couldnt drive, stand in a que, couldnt even lay down to get comfy. This had, as I said been going on for 3 years and I was a totally differant person constantly limited in everything i did - I felt about 80! . I had the spinal fusion with flexible rods etc in aug 08. I went back to work in DEC after 3 months off sick for my recovery. I am still very up and down but I have been told it is to be expected for the first year as the bone needs to fuse etc. With a few physio hiccups and lots and lots of hard work I would say at the moment I am deffinatly 70% better - At least I have 'good days' now.I walk everywhere and swim for about half an hour a week but thats about all the excersise i do- with full time work I get very tierd and worn out easily. BUT.....
for the past 3 yrs I wasn't able to walk more than going up the stairs and that was a struggle! - thats such an improvement. I seem to have written you an essay! I have so much more to say but don't wont to blbber on! If you have any questions or want to talk more then send me a message. Thanks

Well, I'm not sure what condition your wife is being treated for so my situation may be completely different since I had spinal fusion for scoliosis. But I can still answer questions about the pain afterwards and everything.

I had my fusion surgery about nine months ago and was fused from T5 to L3. I'll be brutally honest when I say that it's no walk in the park, and it's good that you guys are seeking multiple opinions to see if there are any other treatment options available. Because of the severity of the curve in my spine, I really had no other choice. It's a really tough procedure, and even now I will admit that I'm still not free from pain (though I'm not honestly sure if that's normal and am going to see my surgeon this week to make sure everything's okay, because for a while my pain was really mild and has gotten worse all of a sudden). Like I said though, my situation may be different due to the circumstances and also because my fusion is really long.

Pain after surgery, though, is controlled very well so don't worry too much about that. Recovery is veryyy long. Her activities will be restricted for quite a while, and all of the restrictions are usually lifted after a year.

I'm not trying to scare you or dissuade you, because if done by an experienced surgeon spinal fusions are for the most part successful and can help pain improve a lot. The only pain afterwards is obviously from the body healing, and sometimes the hardware causes issues (particularly bothersome if you're very thin). I'm not even a year post-op, so I can't provide lots of info. on what it's like long term after the op, though.

Anyway, good luck with everything!! =]