Good morning joe!
I had everything you can have at L3 L4 L5. I also had cervical spine surgery last summer that was failed so I immediately had to have another surgery. It wasn’t the surgeons fault. It was my body, my bones, not being hard enough to hold the screws in the front. So I needed bigger hardware in the back when I had my lumbar surgery in 2018 my surgeon wanted to do more but it would’ve interfered with my mobility to work. I was 62 at the time I worked doing shock in the street , with all the things he did I never missed a beat. Meaning I never felt restricted in my lumbar spine whatsoever. He told me he may not be able to get rid of all my pain. Indeed he did not. We were both OK with that because I got my life back ! My lady friend who is 97 had a complete fusion at 80 years old! She was the happiest person on earth! Got rid of all her pain. Lost a little mobility because of the fusion, but she got her life back. Here’s the deal have the best orthopedic spine surgeon money can buy or that you have access to. If you are not sure that you have the best surgeon( I clearly knew I did when I landed on the fourth opinion, after I investigated all the surgeons reviews/histories) then you should keep on searching until you are confident. It was a 20 year search for me. The surgeries were very bad so in hindsight it was all OK. You learn a lot in the process. I had one surgeon who was going to reconstruct my whole back to make it straight, and he got angry with me and wouldn’t do the surgery after everything was all approved. It was a horrible experience for me to endure, but three years later I found out that his spine surgeries are not successful and that the surgeon who did my surgery does all of the other guys revisions ! I wouldn’t concerned yourself so much with all the various details. I would concern yourself entirely with having a good surgical team and had surgeon. Things show up that are unexpected when they open up. They sometimes have to work in the moment and you better damn well be sure you have the best surgeon available to you . I had a pulmonary embolism and I was grateful I was at UCSD for surgery and they could take me down to the heart area to do all the work needed and have all the doctors available to deal with the blood clot that was on its way to my heart. About sciatica: I have had a perform issue for 25 years and the sciatica is part of that. Sciatica is a really complicated thing and MFR myofascial release therapy and not sitting, and keeping your buttocks area. Toned and stretched really helps. Sciatica is not necessarily something, that emanates from your spine, it could be from the nerves being pinched under tight buttocks, muscles, and that’s a whole different ball of wax and a whole different subject. Mine came and went over the years and it always gets really bad if I sit too much during tax season. it has to be dealt with separately I believe. As I am now six years out from lumbar surgery my spine is continuing to collapse around the areas where I had surgery and we are just waiting until it gets squished enough. We’re all I will have to go back and have more surgery. However, I believe it’s going to be lighter than the major one done in 2018. The point is not to be afraid at all and to get your life back . I used to be afraid but now I’ve had so many surgeries. I just know that I’m going to always be a better person and have more of my life returned back to me after the surgeons. I told my surgeon he can’t retire before I stop needing surgeries . I’m getting on a plane right now so I have to go and I hope this roundabout answer helps some. Please read past the dictation errors and let me know if I can help further. Take care, Lori.