I remember that thread. I read it at the time because I was having terrible shoulder pain. I thought at the time it was just from sleeping wrong or some such stupid thing, lol. I had a couple of injections to alleviate the pain, totally unaware that that I had something wrong with my spine.
I wish you the best bud, sounds like you have a lot more going on than I do, considering your lower back is involved. Everybody has different pain tolerances, but I do believe mine is on the high side. At it's worst mine is a 9 out of 10, hence the trips to the E.R. Best of luck KyCatFan, and thanks for the back and forth info, much appreciated.
Btw, how long was your recovery after your surgery? Was the surgical pain very bad?
I believe both surgeries were around 3 months to fully heal. The actual pain from before the surgery hurt me worse than the surgery pain did. Well except the muscle spasms. That was the most miserable experience of my life. Dealing with the surgery pain and throwing the spasms in was horrible. I'd say a 15 out of 10 in the pain scale. I admit I was on the verge of tears from that excruciating experience. Once the spasms stopped it wasn't that bad compared to preoperative pain.
The hardest thing to deal with during the neck recovery was just trying to lay down. It was murder lowering and raising this big old head without using any neck muscles. Be ready to wear a neck brace a lot after the surgery. I'd make sure you have a very comfortable recliner to rest in for a few weeks because you probably won't like trying to lower yourself down and raise yourself up in a bed. Good luck with everything.