[jsewell]

Hi,
Soiunds to me like you are ready for the surgery, You seem to have too many worries about waiting. Will you get worse and will you still be a candidate for ADR.
I have had a lot of fusions as i was never a candidate for ADR do to bone density issues.
I have no idea of the expected recovery time for an ADR. My first surgery was fusion of C4-7. I had one month before school started (i was a teacher), my surgeon strongly suggested I take another month to really heal properly and he convinced me to. You only get one chance to heal properly and you do not want to blow it.
As far as when to do the surgery, my fingers were getting numb , but when my arm became weak, my surgeon said not to wait any longer. You do have the chance of having the nerve stuff become permanent if you wait too long. Especially you have mentioned nerve compression.
As an example in my lumbar spine i had surgery (fusion) in aug. it was terrible as i woke up in horrible leg pain and actually could not even put weight on my right leg. Well the surgery to fix it came 6 weeks later . I now just had an EMG to test the nerves and muscles in my legs and sure enough by waiting those 6 weeks i have permanent damage to my leg muscles in my right leg. I did just go hiking , a little, for the first time yesterday and it was rough. I do think you will be able to get back to your activities. After my neck surgery i did everything as before, i was still trail running , which was my favorite. life was good and will be for you too.
Let us know what you decide
judy