• sudoshakes@reddthat.com
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    3 months ago

    Had exact same fusion performed.

    4 screws, 2 rods to connect them, and a 3-d sintered titanium cage between the vertebrae.

    I can attest to the chronic pain and wanting to armor a bulldozer

    • cassie 🐺@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      3 months ago

      chronic pain conditions are something our healthcare and disability systems specifically don’t handle well and I haven’t met anyone suffering from them that doesn’t want to [redacted].

      my experience with it has been nebulous and hard to diagnose but incredibly disabling. certain treatments like acupuncture or cupping that specifically target fascia, or shit like somatic therapy, aren’t really legitimized by insurance so absent of a diagnosis with a known intervention your choices are to go to a pain clinic and take something possibly addictive or pay your way into alt medicine providers who can either be exactly who you need or hokey grifters.

      and I can only imagine the hell that insurance companies put you through for surgical interventions they are supposed to cover but definitely don’t want to. reading my partner’s rejection letters from her company disability provider has been fucking fascinating