[Maria]

Hi there and welcome!
Is that the University of William and Mary? If so my brother got his masters there.. I graduated from UVA many moons ago (undergrad).

It sounds as tho you're really pushing your schedule mentally. I haven't had ADR surgery just two discectomies. The first one was a big open one at L5S1 back in '89 and recovery was long but good. 2nd one was a percutaneous discectomy back in '92 and it failed.

From 2003-2006 I had ADR 2 levels (lumbar)and ADR and fusion (hybrid) surgery authorized but never went thru with it because I just couldn't bring myself to do another surgery and I had already retired from working (early at age 47) due to my back probs.

All I can say is each person's surgical experience and recovery is an individual experience so you can be given guidelines in terms of how the surgical recovery should go however you will find it's quite an individual thing.

I like to err on the side of caution when it comes to surgical endeavors (had 2 back surgeries, 2 right knee surgeries, 2 bunionectomies, hammertoe surgeries) and all I can say is giving one's self the appropriate time for recovery is really important.

Having adequate time to recover w/o having to push one's self into too much sitting, walking, standing or whatever when the bod is needing rest and recovery time can make a huge difference in how the recovery goes. Can you even drive safely after a few weeks recovery from C spine ADR? I don't know the answer to this. I have heard that recovery from C spine ADR is easier than Lumbar spine ADR tho I still think things are very individual.

I do wish you all the best with your surgery and hope you will have wonderful results and recover beautifully however just remember you are in this for the long haul. If you don't start a job now it would not be the end of the world.

If you screw up your surgical results it will feel like the end of the world. Then again I have no idea what type of work you'll be doing so what I'm saying may not apply to you if you are able to work at your own pace of perhaps from home or something such as this.

Let's see will you become addicted to the drugs if you don't have surgery right now.. well you probably are already physiologically dependant to some degree tho perhaps not. I have have migraines that I use Fioricet for and my c spine has some probs tho not considered necessary to do surgery yet. I do take a low dose opioid medicine daily for low back pain and have been on it for 12 years now and yes I am physiologically dependant on it however I probably was not long after starting it because it's a strong opioid pain med. It does work for me and has given me great relief however and I will take that over having to lie in bed every day crying my eyes out and needing a bunch of other meds on top of that which I do not now need.

What else did you ask...will you get worse if you wait 4 months or wait.. that depends on how bad your cervical area (what's going on and what you do in the meantime that might further make things worse) well really are you ready for the surgery because if you are then probably you should do it now while you've got all the information needed to go with it and before other things change which can happen (surrounding structures). That happened to me within the span of a few years with regard to my lumbar spine because in 2003 I was a candidate for 2 level ADR and in 2005/2006 I was told that there were changes in the facets around L5S1 so a fusion would be a better option there. At least these were the opinions here in the states and WC would have paid for my surgery here not abroad otherwise I would have gone to Dr.Bertagnoli back then.

I'm sure I left some of your questions unanswered or said more than you want to read or here tho I just wish you all the best with everything and please keep us posted! One thing for sure is if you're having Mark help you out you're ahead of the game already and you will have a wonderful spine advocate there for you! Maria