Hi @bjgwellness, welcome to Mayo Clinic Connect. I'm tagging @jenniferhunter on this message. She did a ton of research before choosing Mayo Clinic for her spinal surgery and can share with you what criteria she used and her experience at Mayo Clinic.

Which Mayo Clinic location would your son prefer?

@bjgwellness I wanted to check in with you regarding your son's spinal issues. I'm sorry I missed this post previously. I am a Mayo spine surgery patient for cervical spinal cord compression, and I did have foot drop and an uneven gait like a limp as one of my symptoms which was caused by the spine condition. My spine issues began after a whiplash when another driver rear ended my vehicle. About a month after that collision, I developed foot drop where my foot slapped onto the floor when I stepped onto that foot which my doctor back then didn't recognize as a spine symptom. Gradually that eased away. About 20 years later, I developed a herniated disc and bone spurs that compressed into my spinal cord in my neck and the foot drop symptom came back. It was intermittent for awhile because I was working with a physical therapist who was realigning my spine. When a muscle spasm occurred, it shifted my vertebrae and there was a slight bit of them slipping past each other, so effectively, that made the spinal canal get smaller and brought on the symptoms because the bone spurs on the end of the vertebra and ruptured disc put more pressure on the spinal cord. Then my therapist would get the muscle spasms calmed down again and my gait returned to normal. I have not had any issues with foot drop since my cervical surgery which was a fusion at C5/C6 and I had a great recovery. My neck motion is normal because C5/C6 is low enough that it doesn't do very much for turning the head. The only difference was I cannot touch my chin to my chest, but I get pretty close.

It is very important to get several opinions before undergoing spine surgery and lumbar surgery is a much tougher recovery because he body is bearing most if its weight through the lumbar spine. Did your son find a surgeon who could do lumbar disc replacement?

@bjgwellness I had Lower back fusion .. L4, L5, S1 vertebrae 26 years ago.. when I was 55.. That fusion did not limit my movements... that I could tell.. the plates and screws are still there .. the bone packed around them is solid.. but I function so much better than cohorts.. of the same age, sex and activity level.. The trick is to get a really good surgeon.. I had mine done in OKC.. but that Spine Surgeon is now retired..