There is no one right answer for this situation since so many factors involved. I'm 53 and had L5/S1 fusion done in mid may of this year. I did so after 10 years of exhausting every possible non invasive procedure first. In my case the first month I thought "what have I done" but now things are much better, takes a long time for complete recovery and I hadn't started fusing at my first follow up but feel so much better now something must be happening, I go back early august with new xrays and hopefully good news . Doc was going to let me go back to work until I started fusing but able to talk him into two hours a day and listen to my body. I personally got tired of the only option becoming medication dependant and feeling like a zombie to control the pain. Would I do it the same way again, probably. Some of the injections, blocks and therapy actually gave me relief for extended amount of time. My fear is once you start surgery on the spine chances are more may follow so able to shove it off to the mid 50's want bad.

Cathy