John, thanks for the welcome. Hope all goes well going forward for you. I'm glad to hear you haven't needed the oxycodone.

I think my fears are 1-the spinal will cause some awful damage...2-my pain will be dreadful....3-i may have complications such as nerve damage.
Full disclosure however, I am a professional worrier and have never had any serious illnesses or surgeries and I guess that makes me a novice. I am told my pain tolerance is high however, I hope that is true.
Also, I joined a closed Facebook knee replacement group several months ago and keep reading these horror stories about people being in unbearable pain, etc......which didn't help.
I'm confident however that I have found an excellent OS who is very well trained and only does replacement surgery. And I liked him when we did the initial consultation.