Hello and welcome to this community! I am sorry to hear about your accident and all of your problems. I know of two stories that may interest you. When I was fifteen, which was 18 yrs ago my parents an I were involved in a three car accident. We got the worst of it. My mother broke her foot in 7 places, her leg in 2 places, had compression fractures up her spine, and then exploded 2 discs in her spine. They never offered any kind of back surgery for her until yrs later. It was this spinal fusion that they suggested to you. She was terrified and did not have the surgery. I have watched my mother slowly decline. Now I do not know if the surgery would have helped her but I certainly do not think that she gave her healing process her all! I meet My husband 9 yrs ago he is 13 yrs older than I am. He has had spinal fusion done. He had problems with his back after a very mild car accident. He tried to deal with the pain and the problems but they eventually got to be so bad that he had no choice but to do something. He would walk and then his legs would just not work and he would fall to the floor, he started to have problems holding his bladder, he had severe pain like what you described, and was on pain pills. He did go through with the surgery. I do not know how long the healing process was for my husband I was not around yet but his son says that it wasn't too long, but everyone is different. I can tell you that he is no longer on any kind of pain pills and has none of the problems that he had before. If he over does it like lifts something that he shouldn't then he has bad days and takes a couple of aspirin but he is fine. My mother can no longer lay on a bed or a couch, she sleeps sitting up, she walks hunched over, she has a limited amount of walking that she can do, and she takes 9 10mg loratab a day. These are my two stories for you, I hope you do well in any decision you make! I also agree you should get a second opinion, they never hurt.

collinsc