OnTheFence,
Welcome, and condolences on the long term pain you've had to endure.
Let me say first off, I don't know if you should go ahead with the surgery before end of the year, or wait until you can't live like you pretty much want to, or wait until you can no longer bear the pain. You've received a lot of good input in this thread; and each reply-ee is, I believe, a lumbar patient. I can say that that is a terrible situation in which to find yourself; that is financials being such a large input rather than an afterthought.
An additional thing to consider that I've not seen mentioned; it is possible for long term impingement of root nerves to cause irreversible damage to those nerves. Some people can suffer for 20 years and be 100% symptom free from the first hour after surgery, while others have surgery six months after the onset of symptoms and still retain the symptoms that the surgery was expected to eliminate. With this problem, surgery now or later is kind of a roll of the dice.
Good luck, Jeff
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C4/5 - ACDF in 2000
C5/6 - ACDF in 2002
C3/4 & C6/7 - M6 ADR, Nov 2009, Barcelona
Conceded defeat to a manifestly disingenuous BCBS-TX in my quest for reimbursement, Jan 2011
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