Kathy
Thanks for replying and I am sorry for your situation. Now that I am talking to more people about this, I am hearing simalar results. Surgery is the last resort and I am just information gathering. I guess the bottom line is the severity of the pain and how long you can stand it before trying almost anything. Here is the web site for the orthopedic surgeon in Phx. www.medupdate.org just in case you want to find out about it. I don't know much about it yet.The orthopedic surgeon is Anthony T. Yeung and he does endoscopic surgery in which the patient is awake. Good Luck to you too.