@peggyparker To answer your question, I never had the Harrington rods...by then they were doing fusion.. I have 2 plates and 6 screws plus bone from my hip to hold the stack and get the vertebrae in line in the stack. My fusion was the result of an accident as well, but I had time after the accident (not involving a motor vehicle) to try to walk around for 6 months before the surgery.. That surgery was done by a spine surgeon in Oklahoma City in 1995.. That doctor is retired..