Well, I finally made the decision to move forward with the surgery today after getting some feedback on my EMG and speaking to a fourth surgeon. As I mentioned in this post, I got an EMG from Dr. K to determine the degree of muscle and nerve damage from my extrusion. She was very concerned about the results, so she spoke with Dr. Lettice, and also sent me to another surgeon, Dr. Stefan Mindea at Stanford for a second (or 4th, in this case) opinion.

Dr. Mindea spent some time going over my history and results so far before subjecting me to the typical battery of tests that all of the surgeons have. He then looked over my MRI and strongly suggested that I get the surgery. His reasoning, like Dr Mehdizadeh’s, is that I have some potentially serious compression of my spinal cord, which could lead to permanent damage. Unlike Dr. Mehdizadeh, however, he doesn’t see anything wrong with me lifting after the surgery. In fact, he feels confident that I’ll make a full recovery as far as muscular recruitment is concerned, which is a huge relief to me.

Furthermore, Dr. Mindea believes that my recovery will likely be fairly rapid compared to most patients due to my general level of health and motivation, which is also great news. His expectation is that I will spend two weeks post-op more or less on bed rest at home, and then I will likely be able pursue light lifting (including pullups and chins) for the next 2 ½ months. After that point, I should be well on the road to recovery and will likely be able to lift normally.

So, in a nutshell, while this isn’t the best news I could have, there does appear to be a good chance of a full recovery in a reasonable timeframe. And while I am nervous and a bit worried, I am also a little relieved to finally have a sure path forward.