I have been taping the Harborview Spine specials on Research TV..They are taped at the University of Washington....I think that is the name of the program on our educational station on satellite TV...Anyway ...This morning the topic was on fusion and the problem with more levels becoming problamatic after surgery. The surgeons know that in all probability within four years of fusion we are going to have more levels that need fused. This happens more often with large fusions, but with smaller fusions too....

Most of the films placed up on the screen for viewing were of people like me with large fusions. It was scary to see because little by little most people had their entire spines fused. I now wonder if this is my fate.

Not to be depressing, they showed one man with a spine like mine and fusion that was completely bent over....Sorry, but I think I would throw in the towel and just call it quits at that point..

The surgeons talked about something called balancing and if they achieve that with a fusion then they can prevent this problem with more levels going after a fusion. Does anyone know what balancing is or what they were refering to? They also said too that it did not matter what kind of hardware was used in fusion...The problem with more levels becoming problamatic happens in almost all patients...but there is still those people that go on to play golf...and are off the boards...Are they out playing golf because their surgeon was able to reach "balance" in their fusion?...Whatever balance is?