[phylly]

Hi Liz,
I think you explained the vessel guard better than I could. The only part I would add is they left same vessel guard in place and put it down again once the removal was completed. The vessel guard allowed the Drs. access through the front and therefore very little bone was removed. I realized that I was very lucky because vascular accidents can happen and when they do they are life threatening. That is why most Drs. chose to go in from the psoas muscle or just fuse over the discs. The Drs. that remove the discs believe that you heal better when they are out rather than fusing over the hardware and putting more in. Liz, when I read the OP report it talked about gently retracting vessels. They also slightly distracted the vertebrae to get in the bone cage and had to scrape/score the endplates so the bone could adhere. It sounded like they worked very slowly and carefully. Let me know if there is anything else I should talk about?

Liz, Keep us up to speed on all your tests and what you might be doing?
Justin, I was glad to see you posting, I miss you. Have you decided what you will be doing? Thinking about revisions are pretty stressful as there are so many different opinions about what to do. You are both such thoughtful people who have researched this a lot. I know you will both make good decisions.

My walk was wonderful but I did get pretty sore after and took a nap. Of course the phone rang and woke me up. So much for being lazy. What a beautiful day today is here in the OC.
Phylly