It's been a while, here's an update

Sorry, haven't posted in a while.
In August I found a surgeon in North Jersy that does XLIF surgery. This is the surgery where they go in form the side and take out the disc material and replace it with plastic spacers. Small hole fast surgery etc etc. I drove two hours to meet with these guys and they kept me waiting 2 hours and 15 minutes. I met with the 2 surgeons and was told that I am a perfect candidate for the XLIF. They had already seen my CAT scan and MRI. They asked me if I had any questions. I took out a full sheet of paper double spaced. My biggest concern was that they wanted to do the surgery in their surgery center and not at a hospital. I told them that a) I'm a big guy (6'5" and 300 lbs.) and b) I have sleep apena. They told me that would not be a problem. Even though my current surgeon wouldn't do my laminectomy at his surgery center because of this. I asked how the plastic spacers that they hammer into the empty disc space are kept in place. They told me that there are "barbs" on the spacers the "dig into" the vertebre. I told him that I read many cases on the internet of lawsuits for the same spacers that doctors did not use a type of fixation (screws plates etc). I got a 10 minute song and dance. They said if they do the surgery it would take 3 hours to do three levels, then I would recover at the surgical center. And get this.. because I live so far away I should get a hotel room for a day or two to make sure that there are no problems. Isn't that what a hospital is for???

The assistant called the next day to see if I wanted to schedule the surgery. I told him that the XLIF procedure was interesting, but that those surgeons weren;t going to touch me. I wasn't impressed. I want my SURGERY to be done in a HOSPITAL.

I have my 1 year surgery checkup soon, so I will ask him.