Yes, I am leaving for Germany a week from Thursday, and my surgery is on Tuesday May 26.
Is your doctor going to do ADR at the L5/S1, or fusion? I was a little confused by two different things you wrote.
I know you know this already but....because you have the ADR at L4/5, even if you have fusion at L5/S1, you won't have to worry about adjacent segment degeneration. The segments adjacent to L5/S1 below are fused segments, and above is the ADR which will protect the levels above that. But I understand preferring to have ADR if possible.
And you reminded me that I want to go out and buy all the greeting cards I will need over the next several months. Just one little thing I won't have to worry about, if I have difficulty getting around. With everything that has been going on with me, I've forgotten two birthdays in the past couple of months
. I know they understand, but I felt bad when I realized I had forgotten.