[Maria]

Personally I've learned for myself that I don't make my best decisions when it's "crunch time" and esp. something of this magnitude and involving the spine, surgery in Europe vs. the US and so forth.

Will this be the end.. who knows? And that's not really the premise you should be working from. Rather it should be if you have surgery in Germany it's because it's necessary and you're willing to deal with whatever the outcome is and if you have postpone your return home for whatever reason you can deal with that both emotionally and financially.

No one can predict your outcome. You can be given statistics and high hopes and well wishes tho truly no matter how much of a slam dunk this surgery might appear to be .. you have to be prepared for the "what ifs.." if not my suggestion is to wait.

Which may be in direct contrast to what anyone else here would say esp. someone like Mark who has much more knowledge and experience working with people that go abroad for surgery as he is a spine advocate working with surgeons all over.

So my opinion is just that. My opinion. Good luck to you and I hope whatever decision you make it will work the best for you ~ whether it be surgery now or surgery later.... it's going to be your decision and it is a tough call for sure! Maria