@lisaschultz327 Hello and welcome to Connect. I'm sorry you are going through all your health issues and being isolated from better medical centers doesn't help. I have a friend who lives in rural Hawaii on the big island and has a similar problem, and getting spine care for her involved a flight to another island. Have you considered moving to be closer to family or better medical care? I'm sure that is not an easy choice. I couldn't find a spine surgeon who would take my case locally, and I drove to Mayo for surgery and followups where I could get good care which is about 250 miles each way, and that was totally worth it.

I am a spine surgery patient and had a cervical fusion 7 years ago. Cervical surgery is an easier recovery than a lumbar surgery because in lumbar, you are bearing most of your body weight at the lower end of the spine. I can understand not wanting to have a lumbar fusion as the recovery can be difficult from what I have heard and it may not cure pain. There may be other procedures like a laminectomy that may help if you have stenosis in the central canal which is not as invasive as fusion and is a faster recovery. My 80 year old cousin had this and was off pain meds in 2 weeks and was up and around and back doing his normal activities in a month.

Medicine has not advanced enough to be able to do stem cell transplants for damaged spinal discs. Spinal discs loose their connection to blood supply soon after they are formed when they stop growing. They do not have the ability to heal themselves and have low levels of oxygen because of the lack of blood supply. I had hoped for that too when I didn't want spine surgery, but having a cervical fusion gave me back my ability to control my arms and has been a very good thing in my life. Of course every patient is different and age and all the other health conditions a patient has have to be considered in a decision if surgery is a good choice for a patient. There are risks to everything and the benefit has to outweigh the possible risks and complications.

Does swimming help you? It is a great way to exercise as long as you don't over exert because you become weightless in the water. I used to be a lifeguard, although I don't swim much anymore. I did volunteer in a swimming rehab type program and it always helped the participants.

Have your doctors suggested any spine procedures or do they advise pain management instead?

I thought you may be interested in this information about regenerative spine treatments being researched at Mayo in Jacksonville, FL.
https://regenerativemedicineblog.mayoclinic.org/2021/06/17/could-regenerative-medicine-relieve-neck-back-pain/