update on my back...

ok guys and gals! here's the latest and greatest with me and my back. i went for a consultation with my ortho/back doctor yesterday. to talk about what we've done so far and what the results show, etc. basically they narrowed down the source of my problem and it is not just the one blown disc pressing on nerves. it is a combination of things, but mostly what they consider to be a "mechanical" issue with my back. the actual vertibrae (L4/L5 and L5/S1) levels are really messed up and are not going to get better, they will only degenerate more. which i cannot even imagine at this point! i have already been in so much pain. i've dealt with this in some way shape or form since 1999. now it's at a point where i had to make a decision to keep going the way i am, or do something to help stabalize the whole situation and hopefully provide me with a change in my pain level and be able to function better from day to day. i do not want to take pain meds every single day/night. tentatively, i have a date of oct 17th set for surgery. it's tentative because there will be two surgeons working on me at once, so the second surgeon has to have that date open too! lol they said that the surgery will last approximately 7 hours and i will be in the hospital for approx 5 days. afterwards i will have 3 months of extremely limited activity while my back is healing (i'll be able to get up and go to the bathroom, go to the dinner table, watch tv, read, etc.), and then physical therapy to help strengthen my back and stomach muscles to help achieve a better mobility and support. the overall recuperation time is somewhere between 6-9 months. di'm not even nervous about having the surgery, i've just been in pain for so long... i can't live like that... the pain is so bad that i can't do normal everyday things. and if i take the pain meds to alleviate the pain, it does take away the pain, but it also knocks me out as well... and i end up sleeping my days and nights away and the times that i am up and awake, i lose alot of that, actually forgetting alot of stuff because i've been out of it so much. so, that's what's going on. i'll make sure to let everybody know if this becomes a definate date and all. i wanted to let you all know. ok, i'm out of here for now! lol i'll quit rambling! lol