Good for you! My dad went through this twice with his back and leg pain, and his neck and arm pain (like siatica but in the arm, upper neck disc needed a fusion in the vertebrae). It’s good to see when someone is relieved of this type of pain as it can be debilitating for months, and the sleep is rough–if you can even.
I’m sure glad to hear it went well! Good news!!
Good morning (well, at least it’s still morning here) everyone! Thank you so much for the well-wishing! It seems to be working. 
Rico, c’mon down some time and I’ll make sure we LA Dopers give you a proper welcome. No man-eating tigers, we promise!
And now that I can open the door, Southern Yankee,, I can now hear the rest of your knock-knock joke. [Vicini] I’m waiting! [/Vicini]
And juliefoolie, you seem to have hit on something my neurosurgeon said:
The day after my surgery I called about a minor concern, and he cheerfully answered the phone, “Hey! I bet you’re feeling a whole lot better and walking all over the place!” Yes, I told him, I was. Then he told me–my surgery was FUN! 
When I asked what he meant, he said sometimes when these surgeries are decided based solely on MRI films, it can be tricky. Sometimes the films don’t show everything, or what they show isn’t what’s really going on. In my case, it was exactly like what the MRI showed: a severely herniated disc pointing like a finger jabbing the nerve. He said the nerve was “significantly pinched” (no shit! I noticed! :eek: ), and that he knew that by doing this surgery, there would be immediate relief. I suppose when you’re a neurosurgeon doing brain surgery and other far more complicated and tricky procedures, having a case where a patient has to be wheeled in on a gurney because she’s at a 9-10 pain level and is no longer ambulatory…and then being able to almost instantly relieve her of the pain so she is up and walking the next day would be hugely satisfying and “fun” of some sort.
Glad I could provide that for him!
The surgery was FUN for him? Did he stitch his initials into your back or something?
Seriously, Ruffian has a huge point about the level of uncertainty involved with many, and I believe most, neurosurgeries. If you look here at the thread about my father’s recent bout with neurosurgeries, you’ll get an idea of some of the “good” levels of complications that can happen. As frustrating as they are, I still call them “good” because they’re treatable, still. That’s not always the case with neurosurgery.
Then there’s the whole issue with clots in the brain, which seems to have been something Ruffian’s doctor didn’t have to worry about at all.
I really can empathize with a neurosurgeon calling Ruffian’s treatment “fun.”
aside from fun with the staple gun… it must be great to know you can have such an immediate result. fun for doctor and ruffian.
just not to much fun there, ruffian! slow, steady, fun for you.