Ok, just got back and the news is this: No surgery will help at all. Nothing is bulging into the spinal cord or on a nerve, so surgery won't help at all, I was told it wouldn't make any kind of difference.
The nerve induction test showed the old nerve damage in the left leg (and this is the leg that is causing me the most problmes with weakness and loss of strength). However, apparently there has been some new nerve loss in the right leg, but that leg hasn't caused me any problems.
So the surgeon refered me to a physical therapist (apparently a specialized therapist since the choices for where to go didn't involve anything closer to home than the surgeon was). Basically, from what I understand, the PT I'll see is trained in pain management, physical therapy for back problems and the like. It sounds like what I'll have to go through is a combination of physical therapy (wihch is going to kill me, considering how limited my mobility is currently), meds, pain management, and possibly (not sure if the surgeon was serious or not) acupuncture.
Needless to say I'm both relieved and extremely frustrated. I really didn't want to be laid up trying to recover from surgery, but frustrated because surgery would at least provide me a good chance of being able to do more than I currently can in a quicker timeframe than PT likely is. And the therapist I'm likely to see is the same doctor that preformed my needle torture....I mean nerve induction test today.
So, things go along pretty much as they have been for at least the next two weeks, me unable to do much and on painkillers to try and control the pain.
The only real good news I have out of this is the the PT I'll be seeing will be able to definitively saw what my limitations I have, so there is the possibility (provided things don't get a lot better) of having a doctor backing me on disability.
Speaking of disability, the day after I see the PT, I have to go visit another doctor for testing to see if my depression is bad enough to qualify for disability.
I never really wanted to go the disabilty route, but after having so many people last year (including several health care officials) telling me I should apply for it, I did go ahead and do it. Right now, I think the application for the back/physical issues has been put on hold, but the mental issues (or at least, the ones I KNOW I have
) are what I need further testing on, so I have an appointment for that too.