[Kathy]

Gil,
I agree on getting more opinions. As mentioned, an ADR surgeon can do fusions as well. I was told by my surgeon that if he got into surgery and saw something that would make me not a good canidate for ADR, that he would do a fusion (say my facets were worse than expected). At first this scared me, but then, I would rather my surgeon do a fusion and not ADR, rather than do the ADR, only to need a revision later.
What does your MRI report say about L5/S1? What does it say about the other levels?
As you probably know, I was in the Active L clinical trial. Dr. Rolando Garcia in Florida was my surgeon. He and Dr. Yue invented the Active L disc. I really liked him and feel he did a great job on my back. I know he had 5 or 6 spots left open in the trial, at his location. The trial is in it's 3rd year of trials and is wrapping up. He said he was seeing his first patients for the 2 year follow ups and that the trial has been very successful. If you would like any more info, pm me and I would be happy to help.
Last, I will re-post what I posted earlier on the other Cathy's thread, regarding the timing of surgery....
As far as when to have surgery and is your pain bad enough. I think that it depends on the person. Prior to surgery, my pain was usually less than 5 with meds, it would go up to a 9 or 10, if I didn't take meds at the first sign of breakthrough pain. I didn't want to live like this, why should I have to take drugs to be 'normal'? I knew that this had taken a huge toll on me; but never realized how much. My husband told the surgeon, prior to surgery, that this has aged me 10-15 years. He never told me this, I'm sure not wanting to depress me more than I already was. He went on to say how full of life, energy, happiness I was before this and how I am now. I'm sure your loved ones have seen a similar change too.
Not to mention, your facets aren't getting any better. I was lucky, in the sense that all 3 of the surgeons I saw, agreed that my facets were not yet bad enough for ADR surgery; but they all also agreed that I didn't have lots of time left. Plus, the osteoporosis, osteopenia issue. I was also told that my age would be in my favor too. So, it goes to reason that the sooner you do it, the younger you are, the faster you will heal.