I would like to know more about 'living' with a neck brace... it sounds unbearable... My surgery is for L4 L5 and maybe SI(?) I keep forgetting to check that out !? ) I certainly agree with who you did that though!

The first surgeon wanted to do laminectomy, and then two fusions. The next surgeon suggested the laminectomy and one fusion.

The next time I spoke with him, he and the senior surgeon discussed my case and now recommend just the laminectomy, but strongly 'warned' me (probably not the right word choice, but fitting) that I would likely need to also at some point do one fusion and quite possible, eventually a second one. Ugh

Also I had a long session with a FMT (Functional Manual Therapy) expert. My daughter-in-law is a practicing FMT and begged me to go and at least try this. I have to say, it was truly amazing! I am going to see him again this week, but unfortunately my surgery is scheduled for May 14th. So it really won't be enough time to really give this a long enough experience to see if it could really prevent the necessity of the surgery. Apparently, there seem to be a number of people who had so much success with this (non-ivansive) treatment they were able to avoid surgery altogether. I'm really torn now.... I dread the thought of surgery but my pain level is pretty significant and I have become more or less home bound... of course after the surgery I know there will be a long recovery (even though the surgeon said that typically after a laminectomy people 'go back to work in three weeks'! That's hard for me to believe...but? Another complication is that I suffer from EDS (Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome). I will attached the description. There are many types, 7 I think, and mine is the 'Hypermobile EDS)' I've had elbow, shoulder, wrist, hand surgeries over the years and a lot of PT. My greatest weakness is that my core is not strong... and much of my pain can relate to years of that, using my back for the strength that I should use my muscles instead. Probably more information that anyone cares to know, but surgeons are notorious for not really understanding the true nature of this condition... If anyone has any feedback I would LOVE to hear it! Thanks gang!