How to know what spine surgeons and their reviews are honest?

@annie1 Hi Annie, I live on the West Coast, and I just saw a post in which you said you are in New York, so I don't think we can compare people as much as the experiences themselves.

I had fusion from T10-Pelvis and went to a hotel for one night once I was released from the hospital (4 nights/5 days) and then rode 8 hours in a car the next day to get home. I stayed on the pain medication till I got home and weaned myself off the good stuff within a few days. The hotel night wasn't great but I was very surprised at how well I did getting home in the car. I did have help at home as my husband took very good care of me. I would not have been able to go home alone. I was told to walk as much as possible so that's what I did and then had PT after 3 months to start stretching and strengthening safely.

@annie1 Hi again Annie. You asked me sometime ago--when I said I turned down a plan by a surgeon to "straighten your curvature"--what I do for the pain. I didn't answer you right away because it's a long story and I want to condense it. I want other people to know about this too. I have had procedures aimed at specific spinal locations that obviously, on MRI, were causing pain. I have, during all this time, been taking oxycodone-acetaminophen 5-325 mg 4 times a day. I now take it 2 times a day with more in the morning, when the pain is at its worst.
I had an Intracept procedure in two locations on 2 separate occasions. This procedure has been around for more than 16 years, when it was approved by the FDA. Yet I found out about it only when I went to a surgeon who really does specialize in treating patients with chronic severe pain. I've been told by more than one person in healthcare that severe chronic pain treatment is where there's a hole in the system, as I think just about everyone here has experienced.
MRI indicates where Intracept will likely help reduce pain, that is where the endplates of a vertebra are distorted. The surgeon goes into that specific vertebra and ablates (kills) the major nerve in that vertebra. The first of these procedures I had, eliminated excruciating pain I had across my waistline in my back. This very specialized procedure should Only be done by a surgeon trained by the Intracept developers. You can find such a person by going to the Intracept website and looking for surgeons who are in their subset of experts. Prior to having that procedure I was told by physicians at a major "Pain Management" center that there was nothing more they could do for me because I didn't respond to their cortisone injections. Nor would they prescribe enough pain medication for coverage in the second part of the day.
I have had no recurrence of that pain where that Intracept procedure was done. Because osteoarthritis is progressive, and I have an unusually severe case, I keep developing new back pains. My other joints hurt more too, but that is tolerable. For the newer back pains I have received mostly additional injections of a numbing agent plus a cortisone with only moderate success in terms of decreasing the pain. Ibuprofen (one brand name is Advil) gives some relief but even taken on a full stomach seems to have gotten my stomach constantly iirritated so I'm off that for now.
I also have had the Reactiv8 procedure, which activates muscles that send pain signals to the brain and restores those muscles. Its is the only treatment, says my surgeon, that restores function.
This is getting too long so I'll leave off here and answers what questions I can if anyone has any. I did find that questioning surgeons about why they thought surgery of my curvature was Not advisable gave me enough information to make an informed decision--together with my own research online. What the more conservative surgeon told me was easy to understand and invaluable for making a decision to go without that back surgery. I didn't have to do any additional research.
Best wishes to all!!

@painsurvivor
Thank you for all that information. My situation is that I don't have back pain I have awful pain in my legs and spasms go through my whole body when I lay down at night starting in my pelvis seems to ricochet through my whole body. I've had worse and worse pain in the last 2 weeks mainly because I did things I used to be able to do like just walk more on uneven ground at a camp I go to. Right now I'm lying in bed with throbbing legs from doing that. Anyway I don't know if that intercept would work for leg pain and I also have a question about those cortisone injections. One of the surgeons I'm interviewing wanted me to get a diagnostic epidural injection if l34 where my tramadol space is almost obliterated according to another doctor who looked at it. The other doctor said they didn't think doing a epidural in that area would be safe that it could cause my nerves more harm but the other surgeon wants me to go ahead and do it is a diagnostic test. I don't know what to do. I looked it up on NIH and the result was the answer that it would be a difficult epidural but there could be ways they could do it the person would have to be very skillful. It puts me in a really awkward position then I have to wonder whether the pain management doctor is very skillful or not and ask him that. Any advice?

@annie1
I'm not sure how the doctor warning about causing your nerves more pain can say so without a diagnosis of your current pain and without giving you an alternative option, unless I'm missing something?