Hello out there!
I had a right SI fusion done back in 1995. The recovery was 4 months! Not to frighten any of you, as the technology has come a long way since then. I was not allowed to drive, walk or even touch my my toe to the ground for three months. Thank the lord I was young at the time, and had all of the finest Doctors here in Denver watching over me very closely. At the same time there was talk of fusing my lumbar spine from L-3 all the way to S-1. I dodged that by having the SI done first. I will never be out of pain all together, but the surgery did allow me to continue to work, and as a single mother that was a priority.
Now that many years have gone by, the SI is acting up again, along with my lumbar problems and the newest gottcha which is my right hip. It now needs a total hip replacement.
10 years after my SI fusion, I did a little research and found that a huge percentage of SI fusion patients had terrible problems with the hip on the same side as the fusion. The surgery is different and better now, but ask questions!!