ADRSupport Community - New Here, Been "Hiding" under the bed

Hi y'all. I need your help. This will be a long message. My husband, John, has a bad back. It was a WC injury in '99, herniated disc. After predisone, P.T., etc, the doc wanted to do surg & heat up the herniated disc (making something like a candy coating on an M&M) to fix it. I'm a nurse, so I asked around. Ended up getting a lawyer & switching to a brilliant neurosurgeon. John had an MRI, Myleogram/CT scan with spinal leak and blood patch fix. Then he got a lumbar laminectomy, a spinal decompression, and a discectomy (John says it was a "partial") back in '00. Its at L4-L5 or/and S1-L5 depending on whether you ask him or me. http://adrsupport.org/groupee_common.../icon_razz.gif His pain level did decrease for a time, but he has been deteriorating. SSD turned him down 3 times, the judge keeps basing his decision on the first docs's notes (he was a quack). In '04, I heard about an ADR trial in TX and asked his neurosurgeon if he could be a candidate. "No" was the response, with no real reasoning. John's pain specialist has him on alot of meds & he says he feels like he's 80 years old, instead of 39 now. He fights depression due to his back & he gets rather grouchy. He's also been labeled with DDD and arthritis. I believe I heard Stenosis mentioned. He's also got high blood pressure & high cholesterol. He goes into hibernation during the winter because he's too stiff to move much. He eats one meal a day and this past year dropped 25 pounds and was approaching an anorexic state. His weight has come up some now, by he's still a 6 foot 5 inch string bean. He's been existing on pain meds and caudal epidural injections for the past few years. We also asked about fusion in the past & was told he had a 33% chance of getting better, having no change, or getting worse. His pain specialist recently recommended the Advanced Bionics electrical implant. He did the trial, the results were good for ONE day, but John was sold on it. Turns out the neurosurgeon will have to put it in, however, he wants to use a different/larger implant and place it at his back and remove more bone to put it there. This surgeon is now chief of neurosurgery at the hospital and did the 7 minute visit AS REQUIRED for insurance payment. (Do you think he sold out?) I am absolutely opposed to an implant positioned on his back; I've seen a bedsore on a semi-bedridden patient with a bad back with it and the infected bedsore went all the way down to the "wires". The patient ended up dying. So, I want something that will FIX John. Does he sound like a possible candidate to y'all for ADR? He's never had a bone density test or a discogram. To my knowledge, it's never been mentioned to him before. In the past couple of years the stress of this has really gotten to me personally. I have nurse burnout and what's commonly called "caregiver role strain" and my back is starting to "go out" too now. There'd be no way to pay the mortgage if we both have bad backs. I've learned that heat works good on the muscles in my back and an ice pack on my bottom & posterior thigh help with the sciatica. So any advise y'all can give me would be great! I've felt like vomiting in disgust at the healthcare system, crying/screaming in frustration and defeat at failing my spouse,and wanting to hide under the bed with the dog until it all goes away. John also admitted to me after an E.R. visit last month (his fentanyl patch malfunctioned --- it was either dumping on him or he was going through withdrawal) that the hospital is trying to sue us now because WC hasn't paid the bills lately. His current meds include:
Multivitamin, Zantac, Cymbalta, Meloxicam/Mobic, Zyrtec, Pericolace, Hydrochlorothiazide, Simvastatin, and 75 mcg Fentanyl patch every other day.
Backs are not my area. Any advise is greatly appreciated.
-Ginny