I saw my neurosurgeon again this morning to review the latest MRI from the 9th. There hasn't been much change in the past year. He's encouraging me to go get more opinions but said in his mind, until I'm nearly disabled from this (i.e. no longer able to work, problems walking, etc.), to hold off on ANY surgery including ADR. While I appreciate that honesty, my fear is not being a candidate for ADR at some point because of the disease progression (L5-S1 is basically bone-to-bone now) and I really don't want to start down the fusion path at my age (40). Surgery is probably inevitable at some point given my family history of DDD and several members who have had to have at least 2 levels fused. In fact, the Dr told me this morning that it's probably inevitable unless I can "stick it out" until my 70s by which point L5-S1 will probably auto-fuse anyway.
While I certainly agree that I'm not disabled per se, being in some level of pain daily along with numbness and tingling isn't pleasant and at times it does affect me mentally/emotionally...it's draining. I'm still having a dilemma of trying to determine when it's "time" I guess. Being in any one position for too long makes things worse which means my sleep is disrupted almost nightly. That causes me to have to get up, stretch and many nights take some narcotics just to get relief so I can go back to sleep. Then I have trouble getting up and going in the morning because I'm in a "drug coma". Luckily I work from home when I'm not traveling for work so right now, that's manageable. The Dr has suggested going back to my gym routine (my "routine" right now consists of only walking) and if it hurts, stop. ??? Seems a little risky but perhaps better than nothing at all and maybe that will force a decision. Ha!
Has anyone else been in this situation of not being completely incapacitated by symptoms but still faced with trying to decide if they should just proceed with the ADR? I'm scared to do it but also scared to not do anything if it means I can't go the ADR route later due to DDD progression.
