I had rods put in, but they say they will never come out. It is hard work, but the pain that I had previous to the surgery, and what I have now, is no comparison. The recovery takes a bit and you have to be patient. I found that my muscles had tried to work for me, but now they are working for me properly. Good luck!

I had my rods put in 8 years ago, when i was 18, and only a few years later I started to get re-occurring back pain in my upper and lower back (sometimes for months on end) ((sometimes both at the same time!)
It has been a real horror, because of these pains, i've wound up in more pain (suddenly doubling over in pain whilst moving something, and hitting/crushing myself)
i've lost jobs (try explaining that you could't come into work for 3 days in a row because doing anything then laying on my chest with a cold/hot compress caused me to bellow out in pain)
I've even had significant others leave me because they could't deal with someone who acted like they were an eldery person constantly complaining about pain.

All in all, If i could go back in time and say i'd rather take my chances of dying or being 'hunch back of notradam' as my surgeon so eloquently put it. i'd have lived being a hunch back or dying. thank you so much.