So, after having a relapse mid August, I got to see the neurosurgeon in September.
In the mean time I had gone back to phsyio and massage team, had seen my doc again, had tried some more cortisone injections.
After close to an hour of talking we had settled on a two track approach. The surgeon was hesitant to go straight to the fusion - it had only been about 6 weeks since the major pain relapse, and he wanted to wait and see how much it would improve. So we tried another round of cortisone injections. Also during this period I pursued a pretty aggressive approach to the pain and hit the gym at work every day for stretching and core work.
The second track to take was the fusion option. While doing everything in the first option, I put the extra paperwork in for the hospital for the fusion and submitted a request in to the Department of Veterans Affairs (it is for my old Army injury after all) to help out with funding it.
Personally, I wasn't happy with some of this. I wanted the surgery ASAP. In hind sight the surgeons advice is right, try one more time, if it doesn't get better then we'll really know. It was always going to take time to organise things - approval, hospital, DVA etc. I'm glad we didn't rush into this and that they don't hand out this type of surgery like its candy.
By the time the surgery was all booked in and approved, the date was 02 November 2012. I had been in pain for close to 3 months, it wasn't going away. I was so keen to get it over and done with at start the recovery.
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