Background: Veteran. I have been dealing with Severe Stenosis & out of work for 5 months now and missed 60% of work that entire year.

Doctor kept asking me why I do not do the epidural shots. I was told by others that if the steroid packs are not working, then why would the shot for the most part. Plus I have heard of people who got worse. Not saying I would get worse, but my gut feeling says beware on those shots.

Then they set me up to do the Vertiflex procedure and I just cancelled it today because my gut feeling is telling me that I would rather have several good weeks in the year and try to accept/manage the rest of the year that is really bad, than to make things worse. It seems like every 6 months I am now put in hospital. But after each bout, couple months later, I can walk half the time without a can and deal with the extreme pain because I have had years to learn how to fake how I look on the outside even though I am feeling destroyed inside much of the time.

I decided today to research more on the vertiflex and it seems it's not actually working for people as much as I had hoped. I honestly feel PRESSURED by doctors to get surgery and I am too young for me to start opening my back up knowing that too many people say over n over that once you do, you have a 50/50 chance of making things worse.

My actual plan is to fight it another 5-7yrs and see if the new generation AI that we are experiencing will change the way we do back surgeries. If they can make humanoid robots, they must be able to bring back surgery and be able to replace full sections of spine that move even better than the original. Hope that made sense.