[Kathy]

I am so sorry to hear about John and the others who have had bad or less than favorable outcomes. Unfortunately, there is no way to know if any one surgery will work for a certain person. It is a very serious and important decision to have any surgery and should not be taken lightly. We could all have the exact same problem, same surgery, doctor, care, etc. and all end up with a very different outcomes. I think any surgeon who claims to have never have had a bad outcome, is obviously a liar. The choice of a surgeon is as important as the choice of which surgery to have. I hope that this board and others like it will help provide people in the research process with much needed information regarding all spine surgeries and help them to make an informed decision (and doing nothing at all is still a decision, it's just a decision to do nothing and can allow for more damage where one loses the option to have certain surgeries). I know nothing about Stenum, but obviously a place that does as many surgeries as they do is going to have more bad outcomes than somewhere that does less (not because they are 'bad'; but because of the success vs. failure rate). Hopefully, with all of us 'guinea pigs', spine choices in the future will be more black and white and we will understand better why some surgeries fail and some suceed.
Gonna get off the soap box now.....