[Maria]

Ravenous,
I was 28 when first injured my spine. I had L5S1 discectomy ('89) 7 years after initial injury and L4 percutaneous discectomy several years after that. Continued probs. Worsened DDD and continuing narrowing space at L5S1 that many times was described as bone on bone but as Mark pointed out there must have been enough micro motion there that L5S1 was my worse pain generator for many a year to follow... like until 2006.

Now my L5S1 have autofused and I do have much less pain and other probs that I experienced for many a year. Not completely pain free by any stretch of the imagination because L4 is still not good and L3 has an annular tear however pretty much I do think L5S1 caused most of the pain as the autofusion seems to have greatly alleviated much of my pain/symptoms (and yet I still take a low dose opioid pain medication 1x/day for pain alleviation).

So my best guess is that you may have a good number of years where the micro movement as Mark stated could cause you pain, flare ups and symptoms that would make for a long haul waiting it out.

I'm in my late 50s now so I went from being in my late 20's with back probs to being in my early to mid 50s for this autofusion to occur. I feel it was worth it to wait however I did have surgery in between this time (2 in fact) and I think that you may still have quite a long haul in front of you re autofusion.

Get more opinions. Speak to Mark~ he helped me greatly and many others re decisions on what to do, where to go, who to see and so forth. Definately someone worth talking to!