I wonder if you would have that kind of experience if you were at one of the major and highly recommended hospitals like Mayo, John's Hopkins, Stanford, cedar Sinai, etc.
Where has your spine surgeon search and research led you so far? What state are you in if travel is an issue? Good luck in your quest.

If you’re headed toward surgery and you don’t feel comfortable with the surgeon’s abilities or fear they will not be honest with you get some counseling or seek some advice first. You are setting yourself and the surgeon up for failure having that concern hanging over your head. Going under the knife in older years is fraught with concerns normally so don’t make it worse for yourself.

I just had Fusion done - I interviewed a few and selected my surgeon - I trust my surgeon, can recommend, but where are you located?

Hi. It's a big decision, I appreciate. I would be inclined to make another appointment with one of the surgeons who advises against surgery and ask them to explain their thinking.
I had a surgeon who explained to me, in a similar circumstance, why he advised against surgery -- my arthritis was too diffuse, in too many locations on my spine -- for an operation to succeed. I am ever grateful for his advice. I had just seen a surgeon who immediately scheduled me for surgery the following week!, which I believe would have gotten me in a very painful situation with a need for additional surgeries.
So, I think it's best to have a second meeting with one of the 2 surgeons against operating and find out why. I hope you get enough information to make a comfortable decision!

If you're in NJ or Pa, I can recommend a neurosurgeon

It all depends on your exact spinal condition and diagnosis. Mine was S1-L5 right herniation. An honest Surgeon once told me that : “you can have back pain with or without a scar”. He was referring to studies that show that after my kind of laminectomy - discectomy Patients who had the surgery I had, at the 5 year mark, are just about the same as Patients who didn’t. My view is twofold: (1) don’t expect the surgery to make you pain free….instead your goal ought to be to get the pain manageable with associated treatments such as exercise and heat ect, and (2) look at this kind of surgery as a pain management technique that speeds up the process to get to that five year benchmark mentioned above. Pain management is a meditation folks. My two cents.

I have spoken to many surgeons, actually two different ones at Mount Sinai in New York city. They are proposing different surgeries one lesser but not sure it'll take care of all my issues. I don't know if we're allowed to ask about specific surgeons on here, but if we are not please just message me the name of any certain you have surgery with that Mount Sinai in New York and it was successful. I would like to ask about one in particular I'm not sure if it's against rules.

I've been delaying surgery after having a disappointing experience with a highly rated neurosurgeon in New York. My symptoms came back after only 3 months. I had a laminotomy. Anyway I've been interviewing many other surgeons all of them proposing different solutions and finding it hard to know who I can really trust with my body. Has anyone had surgery with Dr Samuel Cho in New York at Mount Sinai or Dr Francis Lovecchio at HSS? If you have good experiences I'd like to hear about them I also have some complicating factors which are osteopenia and being older/74. I'm also open to hearing about other surgeons within a few hours of New York who are honest and skilled at dealing with what I am told a complex it's spine.

After 7 years of having stenosis and finally having a laminotomy two and a half years ago I'm back to square one with the pain returning. Laminotomy only works for 3 months. At this point too surgeons have done epidural injections determine which level of my spine is causing the pain. So far the injections aren't helping anything so I am wondering does that mean surgery won't help and if surgery won't help what is my future? I have throbbingg after I walk. I feel my pain is getting worse every year and I was told I should do usually about a year ago but I didn't and now it seems like I might have waited too long and not even fusion will help I'm getting very worried and don't know what the next step should be. And send me any advice / doctors who can work on extremely difficult cases or perhaps hopeless cases.