Dr Feelgood? More like Dr Feellikecrap!

I went to the Dr today to finally talk about my back and shoulder MRI results. Here's the prognosis:

Back - Ruptured L5-S1 disc (your lowest disc), and very large bone spur.
Shoulder - Torn rotator cuff, large bone spur, cyst, inflammation, and arthritis.

Recommendations - Surgery.

On my shoulder, he seemed very confident on knowing what to do. He stated that he would remove the spur, repair the tear, remove the arthritis in the area and the inflammation as well, and then file down the collar bone in hopes that I don't have to deal with this for a third time in another 8-10 years. Recovery time is about a year to totally be healed, give or take, but about 12 weeks before I can really start to do a lot with my arm again (after Physical Therapy).

On my back, he said that he no longer performs back surgery, so he said he would rather refer me to his partner at his clinic for options on that. I asked his opinion since he used to operate on backs and he said that physical therapy, cortizone shots, etc are all options before surgery. I told him that I've done that for 10 years now and what would surgery entail? He said that they would REMOVE the disc! My jaw mentally hit the floor! Hearing that was such a huge shock to me. After thinking about it for a few hours, I wonder if that's 10 years of wear and tear that have done that after my initial injury, or if that is 10 years of wear and tear, adding the fact of my huge weight gain that I let myself get to. Either way, I felt like I wanted to go forward with it, but now I'm reconsidering. Again though, I need to speak to his partner to see what he says and also look at another opinion if this Dr hasn't done a lot of these types of surgeries. After hearing this prognosis though, I asked my Dr what a typical rehab time would be for it, and he said "a few weeks". A FEW WEEKS?! For a back surgery, where they REMOVE a disk?! Wow! But ONCE AGAIN, I need to talk to my specialist and see what he says.

Now, as I sit here watching the NY Giants pound the Redskins (13-0, but it looks like it's 50-0 the way the surprising Giants are looking tonight!), I am really reconsidering it all. I have so many nagging injuries that I could have a ton of surgeries coming my way, but with me getting in shape, I am really wondering if there is hope that if I continue to lose weight, that it might help me even more than it already has? I don't know. Right now, I'm just going to pray and pray and pray, and see what God will tell me. Just gotta take my time with this.

Well, that's it in a nutshell. God Bless and Good Night.