Lisa,

I am like you..You/We are not chickens, just cautious..I decided to have one big fusion because I just knew I could not go through the fusion thing more than once...never did I foresee that there might be problems...I chose the best surgeon I could find..but now I am going for a CT scan because I am in a lot of pain after the surgery. They want to make certain the hardware is not pressing on nerves...I still have terrible pain in my legs and feet and cannot walk very far. I was just at the Pain doc's office crying to him...They are trying to determine what is going on, but I am so disappointed...I have the same pain post op that I did pre-op and I really do not want any more surgery...

Before I had my lumbar fusion I saw the surgeon that did my cervical fusion. He wanted to do a repeat of the lumbar laminectomy. I just did not think a repeat laminectomy would work since it did not work the first time. I cried all the way home from that appointment. I told my husband that the surgeons do not understand the pain of these surgeries. I opted for the fusion because I just felt if the lami failed again I would then be searching for someone to do a fusion...and knew I could not go through it three times...two was more than I wanted to do....

I have had lots of surgeries, but the spinal surgeries are by far the most painful and your fears are justified. You will eventually get tired of the pain or realize you have to just have the surgery to prevent permanent damage...Only you can make that decision, it is a personal decision all of us have made.

A lay person asked me yesterday if I might just have a low pain threshold....Thank God my husband who has been by my side through all of these horrific surgeries, did not even allow me to open my mouth...he said she has a very high tolerance for pain....

I just wanted to edit this to say I had the surgery and am still taking the same drugs as you kiddo...so there is no guarantee even with the surgery that you will be off the drugs...They just took me off Topamax this morning and put me on Lyrica...Very depressing...It is not easy to have these sort of problems or to live with us...