[treefrog]

Thanks Harrison and keziah.

I have not talked with Dr. Musante since the last time. Now that the holidays are winding down, I will get my new list of questions and call him again.

Yesterday my friend/co-worker wrote an email to a neurosurgeon at Duke (where we work) whom he knows, to ask about getting a second opinion. He gave him the basics of my case. So, maybe next week when I return to work, I will have the possibility of talking with another surgeon.

This really is a hard decision. When I am feeling good, I think I should wait as long as possible before having surgery. But then when I am in pain I think I want to have surgery as soon as possible.

Next Friday I see my PM doc again. I am going to ask her opinion, about the dose of Opana-ER that I am on, and whether she thinks I would be better off having it done sooner. I believe the last time I saw her (though I was in a lot of pain at the time, so my memory may not be accurate) that she said it was a pretty high dose. What that tells me is that it might be better not to put surgery off for too long, as I don't want my pain to get to a point of not being in control again.

Surgery is very scary, and on top of that the possibility of losing my job if I can't come back to work within a certain period of time. Even though right now I am only doing administrative work, most of which I could do from home. But by July, one of the guys is probably going to be leaving for med school, and I will be needed for the work that he is currently doing.

Financially my boyfriend and I were hoping to hold off until April. But that would only give me 2-3 months, depending on when in April, of recovery. From what I have read, even 3 months may not be enough time.

I haven't read a lot of the ADR stories yet, but I have started reading some of them. Are there any particular ones of hybrid surgeries that someone could recommend?