Today is the day I have been waiting for and looking forward too for half a year now, and I am so happy to say I now have answers! I have gone through all kinds of scenarios in my mind as to how the conversations of today would unfold, and I have been pleasantly surprised that it went pretty painlessly. I have seriously thought to myself, Am I crazy? Is this pain for real, or have I lost it!! And it is so reassuring to know now that I WAS NOT CRAZY! I think we can all tell when our bodies are distressed and trying to tell us something, so I'm so glad I persued those feelings and hopefully this will be the last Attempt to get my back healed! Cross your fingers for me! So Today I met with Dr Reichman, It can be quite intimidating to meet with a surgeon like that, because they see such severe things, and have so much experience that it makes you feel like, Am I even worth his time? But Immediately when we met he was so kind and put me at ease. First thing he said was, you are way too young for this! Lets take a look and see what is going on, so He pulled out my MRI films and put them on the Light baord, and gave us a little lesson about the spine, and the nerves, and then showed us where my problem was. Right at the bottom of the lumbar spine(The exact same place as last time) where it starts to curve in the the Sacrum . L5- S1 to be exact, I have a disk that is buldged and torn, and since it is that way, the inner parts of the disk have sqwooshed out, and are rubbing on nerves, and Supposedly that was what was going to get repaired in my last surgery, and for some reason, either that didn't happen, or it re ruptured again, but since last year it has depleted so much that it is near to grinding vertebrae to vertebrae all the time. That is why it hurts so freaking bad all the time! So as we talked he explained the procedure that he suggests We do, and that is a spinal fusion. So basically what they will do is do an incision right at that disk(probably 4 inches long) and they will remove the disk completely. They will clean it all out, put a spacer in the place of the old disk and fill it up with bone material back to the height it should be(so hopefully i'll be 5'11 again!) Then they will put plates surrounding it and screw it into place. Eventually it will heal around the plate, and it will be just like three vertebrae in a row. kind of fascinating what they can do! The reason He suggests the fusion is that if they try to do a diskectomy again, it would most likely tear again because it is too worn out to hold, and Even if it did hold, it is so depleted it will still be grinding Bone on Bone, and that will just continue to get worse with time. So I feel really great about all of it, and I feel it is time. I Trust Him, and I think he is an amazing doctor, So I am really excited to hopefully be on my way to a more pain free me! And best news of all is, he says I should only have to wait about 6 months after the surgery to try to have a baby! So I am thrilled! Lets just hope everything goes according to plan! I don't have my surgery date yet, but it will most likely be in the first of April!