Hello, my Name is jim, I am 37 and father of 6 children, I have been working in the heating and cooling field for over 13 years, I recently fell from a ladder and sustained a serious compression fracture to my t12 area, I can barely walk to due to the lower back pain and also the pain at the Fracture, I can no longer sleep and I was told I have to undergo a eight hour surgery to fix my back, they are going to rmove the bone and dics at t12 to relieve the compressed spinal cord and do a corpectomey with instimental fusion and hardware, I was told that I would be cut open on my side down and around to my abdominal area, for this surgery, I am scared to death , has anyone else here gone through this, and if so colud you give me some heads up, cause I am really concerned, they also told me that if I dont have this done that I will decrease my years of living??, so I am doomed either ways, thanks brokenback jim