How much is lost ?

@Anothermrsockmonkey it’s definitely not an easy injury/surgery and recovery. I’m glad that you were able to recover so quickly. I’m sorry that it still gives you minor issues with pain. Mine has almost driven me over the edge but I can’t do that to my family and all those people who have helped. Many of which I met on here actually. I’m very fortunate. ☺😊

@Anothermrsockmonkey I had my L-4/L-5/S-1 fused at age 29 in 2005 and it lasted for almost 18 years until I broke it and now I need to have it removed and replaced with a fusion from T-9/T-10/T-11/T-12/L-1/L-2/L-3/L-4/L-5/S-1 and possibly T-8/T-9 could be a disc replacement if I have the bone density. I have no more discs in those levels and my original fusion is not functioning as designed for the past 3+ years which I could feel by the increase in my standard chronic pain that became so severe that I couldn’t even drive to grocery store and yet the winter before I could put in over 100 days on snow both at ski resorts and in the backcountry. Once my fusion was broken I could barely walk to the lifts and Splitboarding was impossible. Now I’m back to being nearly bedridden 100% of time. My neurosurgeon proposed a multilevel fusion solution that would need to be installed through a small opening below my navel after the original fusion is removed.
I will no longer be able to bend at my waist. No more cycling on a conventional bike no more snow sports and possibly no more driving let alone riding in a car comfortably. I would need a hospital bed that would allow me to pull myself up with a hanging triangular or T shaped handle and everything that I do such as putting on socks and shoes pants etc I will need to have assistance devices etc. And with all that I will guaranteed lose I have no guarantee that my pain will decrease. I have no idea how I’m supposed to voluntarily schedule a surgery like this and so life has been ticking by and it’s been 2+ years since my diagnosis and my pain management has only decreased In effectiveness as my active life dwindles to almost nothing. I’m more lost by the day. I wish I had no choice in the matter but that’s not the case.
I’m sorry that you had to experience a fusion I haven’t forgotten how difficult that was for me too. I was in the prime of my athletic career and it was only supposed to take me 1 year to recover not 2 years as was the norm for most people my age but I had my fitness on my side. However my surgery left me in more pain than before I was fused and so it was deemed a failure and after 3 different physical therapy attempts I was told to take a break and let my body regain some sort of balance. I ended up formulating my own physical therapy plan and it took about 2 years but I was able to finally get back to my active and semi normal life albeit in a significant amount of pain but I was able to cycle and snowboard well enough that unless I told someone that I had chronic pain syndrome they wouldn’t even notice it. So I had about 7-8 years of fun and then somehow I broke that fusion and I pulverized the discs between my L-3/L-4 and my T-9/T-10 and just like the first time I had exploded the discs and there’s nothing left of them and I have no idea what I did wrong and what caused it but it was sudden not gradual and the only silver lining is that I did it (again) having as much fun as possible in the mountains where I enjoy being most and where I hope to spend eternity when the time comes.