Kathy, Sorry you having so much trouble, but glad the initial surgery is over. I was very lucky with my surgery and didn't have too much trouble afterward. I never had to take any pain meds stronger than a BC Powder, and my surgeon could not understand this because he said grown men beg for meds after the surgery. I know I have a high threshold for pain. My hip has never caused me any problems at all other than the skin over the incision tends to become dry and itchy. I had an unstable back fracture at L1 so my fusion is higher than yours, but I can't bend at the waist either, and also can't turn. I can turn my head, or my whole body, and nothing in between. In addition to the fusion, they added Harrington rods, so I have a lot of area tied off. They had intended to leave the rods about 2 years and then remove them, but I moved, had different doctors, different insurance, etc. and that just didn't happen. I have done really well and can do most things although I may do them in a different way. The first year and a half will be the worst, but after that you will have learned how to deal with it all and not hurt yourself doing it. I tell you all of this for several reasons. I hope it will help you to cope until you are feeling better. I had the surgery in 1986 and had very little pain until the last year or so, except the one listed below. Shortly after the surgery several things did happen to me, and you may have some of the same issues. (1) I had a metal taste in my mouth as if my fillings were melting. LOL I don't know if it was my body reacting to the metal in my back or what, but that lasted about a year. (2) The muscle burning still happens to me across my shoulders. I wonder if it isn't because so many nerves were cut. I would be very worried however if I had pain shooting down my legs as you describe because that sounds like a spinal issue. (3) I had one little spot (and I mean little spot) that hurt and felt like something was poking me with a sharp object. It was on the opposite hip from where the bone was removed. They did nothing on that side. The doc marked it and took xrays and there was nothing there that should hurt. Probably something pinching from the new posture. It went away on it's own. (4)I have had several dentists that would not touch my mouth unless I was on antibiotics. I took a lot. My current dentist doesn't do that, but I still usually ask for one when I am going to have my teeth cleaned. The theory at the time of my surgery was that a bacterial infection in your blood would quickly form along that steel and that was very close to the spine. Mine was probably because of my rods tho because I have 9 inches of steel down each side of my spine. That makes for a long incision. (5)I have screws also and some little things that look like bumper jacks. Every now and then it feels like I get a muscle hung on the wrong side of something. For me it is mostly at the top of my rods, but a screw would do the same thing. The muscle will ache and cramp, but usually if I can relax it will stop and slide back into the right place. In my case it normally happens when I am on my back and have my hand, or hands, above my head. I just lower my hand, try to relax, and wait. It seems to fix itself in a couple of minutes. (6)And there is the cold.....I was never a cold natured person and that is a good thing because when that steel gets cold, you are cold all over. Of course, I have a lot more steel, but when it gets cold, I don't just shiver, I shake. It bothers my husband so badly that he always just tries to put me in a big bear hug to try to help me warm up. I had suffered for many years with serious headaches which went away after the surgery. That was a bonus that the doc didn't expect. Life will be good again, but it will be a little different. Hang in there and it will get better. My thoughts and prayers go with you as you recover. Carol

I missed the spam, as I am just now reading this. Kevin used to work for a rental car agency, and so he knows all the ins and outs. He had the job in Austin, and it made it easy for him to move here and transfer his job at the same time. I had him quit that job as soon as I was able to cover both of our expenses so that he could get something different. On Maui, we bought the total coverage insurance from the company, and it was not that expensive. One of the guide books we had said that there were hostile natives on certain parts of the island, and so we didn't want to be bothered with worrying about parking in a sketchy parking lot. Plus, we were used to Venice Beach and were aware of all the incidents that happen there. Nothing happened on Maui, however. I made a claim on my insurance a few years ago, and my rates did not go up at all, and they are extremely low because my car is not worth anything. I pay less than $200 a year to State Farm for car insurance, and that includes coverage for damage from uninsured drivers. In California, insurance companies cannot raise your rates if you make a claim for this type of coverage, but in my case, I had run into someone's bumper and did a small amount of damage. We take pictures of cars that we rent, but have not had issues. If we did, I would probably make a scene, something short of throwing keys into a cornfield, however. I also would not hesitate to allow my insurance to handle it. If you have not made a claim in a long time, you do not have much worry from rates going up. Lars

Happened just today! DH and I were cleaning up the garage after emptying out a storage shed. Mostly it entailed moving fairly large pieces of furniture up to the second floor. "lift it up!", "lift WHAT up to where?", "lift your side UP", "you mean just up?", "I said UP! How is that complicated?!?", "up, & turn it to the wall, you mean?", "JUST LIFT IT UP!!!" ks toolgirl....were you there? listening? :-) only thing is....he sometimes doesn't even answer my questions....just does his thing and it is up to me to guess what we are doing. My usual refrain is ..."talk to me...tell me what we are doing". Really drives me crazy as I am a teacher and used to giving direction. A teacher he is NOT! lavender...now on to the subject! When we originally bought our home, we planned to build a garage. Even measured to be sure we could build the size garage we wanted and checked with city hall. We did not build the garage right away, took almost 8 years. But over that time we totally changed our ideas and built a garage that fit our home and time period (1800's)so much better than what we would have built originally. Also built it in a different location than we had originally planned. So we are very glad we didn't do that! (build the garage when we first moved in)

Welcome from south central PA! I'm Kathy. Happy to meet you. Hope the procedure has good results. Would love to see pics. Would love some chocolate, cake, etc lol. DH and I had a 3 week trip south in our small rv visiting family, staying at lakes, went to Nashville. Enjoy!