[oes ali]

hello. i have been online looking for information on spinal fussion vs. artificial replacements.

I am Ali. I raise breed and show Old English Sheepdogs for 30 years now. I was a nurse (L&D) for 20 years. And am married to a wonderful man who works for the DOD and is now in South Korea after the pst 5 in Iraq working. We live in Colorado.

Showing dogs has never been easy, you stand on concrete and pound away in circles........ and my guys weight between 70=90 lbs. with brushing for 2-3 hours.

5 years ago i was in an auto accident and stress fractured 4 vertebra in my back and had kyphyoplasty I was up and walking the next morning and doing great. 3 days later i was home. 3 weeks later i was diving in Belize. That summer i 'specialied' my main boy from Mexico all the way to Westminster KC and to Switzerland to the Euro OES show.

Years ago i was thrown off of more horses than i ever knew....... i grew up in Texas/New Mexico and we rode.....

The problem is the past 3 years have been gettting worse and worse. I live on endocet........ i get no/zip/none/ nada help from Oxyconton. I have other stresses with the dogs too (dog club political crap) so i guess i am normal........ but this is so bad that there are days i don't want to get up now. I tried a dog show in st. Louis recently and ended up showing only 1 of 2 days i hurt so badly. I have been seeing my pain clinic doc for past 3 years trying to put off the inevitable of what was ahead and i didn't even know what it would be. I just know that something had to be done. I finally went back to my Orthopedist that did my kyphoplasty. He sent me in and i had a newer MRI (1st in 2 years) and i then had my discoderm whatever it was yesterday. I remember them waking me up to give them the how much pain was it................ and barely remember him telling me that no i wasnt crazy, i had 4 disc with problems. 2 totally 'gone' and 2 with bad tear's and severe leaking.

Where do i go from here.? Do i do nothing, fuse or new replacements? My life is showing my dogs, i need movement.

And then tonight in reading some of these, I had never thought about things going wrong or them not working and it has panic'd me even more.

I am going to have my husband come home from Korea for a week for th surgery........but other than that i don't know where to even begin to what to prepare for. What questions to ask the Dr.? I'm due to breed a litter this summer, how will that work out?

I'm sorry to stammer and go in many different direcrtions. I'm scared and have no one here to talk to.

Thanks.
Ali