@steveinmontana OK you need somebody like me to tell you honestly to look in the mirror! You are not going to find somebody to do a minimally invasive procedure. They won’t do it because it won’t work. However, what you’re thinking of as invasive will actually get you where you need to be quicker and faster. Take it from someone who’s been there and tried for years to come up with something that would be an alternative. The reason being I was working and I also had no one to care for me. You need to suck it up get on that table and have your surgery and get on with your life. If you don’t have the surgery, you are going to take the chance that at some point maybe another two years you were gonna be immobilized and you’re gonna be too weak for any doctor to want to do the surgery and then you’re gonna get stuck. You’re going to lose your independence and you’re gonna be paying not only for five years but for the rest of your life for long-term care. Which is very expensive. So unless you tell me that you have an arrangement for a long-term care I think you should suck it up and get on with it. I have had five major major major surgeries. And I’m probably due for one more. I think you need to look at what you value the most. If it is your independence, you need to have the surgery and get on with your life. If you wait till you’re a mobilized and you’re sitting in a wheelchair and you’re paying for someone to take care of you, you’re going to be in a week condition and recovery is gonna be… Well, maybe a dream! Before each of my surgeries, I was diagnosed so late in the game and I was an overachiever so I did all the things they told me to do but immediately proceeding my hip replacement and my lumbar surgery and my cervical surgery, my body stopped working! I had to have someone drive me to the surgeries because my body stopped being able to drive. My joints were locked up. The movements were so painful. I couldn’t function. My surgeries happened just in the nick of time. You should go talk to the hospital and the surgeons about the fees. When I did my first hip replacement. I had no insurance whatsoever and I paid for it out of my pocket and the hospital in surgeon gives you a 75% discount. And will put you on a payment plan. If you are in California, they are not allowed to take your house away and you have protections.
I know about the problem of being alone, so the arrangements will be made that you will go to a facility as soon as you’re able to be mobile at the hospital and you will stay at the facility until you are ready to go home. That is a covered benefit and you might have a co-pay, but check out the facility you want to go to. I preferred to pay out of my pocket to have someone come to my house. I looked around and a friend of a friend was willing to come stay with me for a couple weeks. I am a very independent person and I wanted to get back to my work and I wanted the caregiver to be gone after I felt better. But I still needed some care so I lined up some cousins who would come visit maybe bring some food and take me for a walk while I got back to normal. After 15 years I’m probably not gonna ask the same caregiver cause she’s probably in her later 70s now and quite a distance away and I’ll have to work at finding someone new. But what I know is it’ll all work out and I’m not afraid anymore. My biggest fear was always the anesthesia but now they have great anti-nausea meds, and I don’t get nauseous anymore coming out of recovery. Once that was handled, I was no longer afraid of the surgery. You are asleep while they do it, lol and the doctors and nurses are very cute. That’s an added bonus.!!