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

Wow, BBJim. I don't blame you for being scared. But I'm a risk-taker and would think you probably wouldn't be any worse off than you are now??? And you might just look back months from now and celebrate how far you've come.

Welcome to NeuroTalk. Sorry about your broken back. I hope you get some good input from some folks familiar with this type of issue. There are lots of great people here. Glad you joined us, but sorry for your pain and inability to sleep.