[CelticNHBlue]

My wife and I are strong believers in Chiropractic. We have been going regularly for years now. Initially it was for corrective issues. My wife was in a not-so-bad car accident but the jolt was enough to cause some misalignment. After two years of PT, we decided to try Chiropractic and within six months she was pretty much back to normal. I twisted a disk in high school that was initially fixed but started to show signs of returning to a lesser degree. A visit a week and and month later, back to normal. We now visit for routing maintenance and general health. We even bring our two kids (4-1/2 & 19 months) for preventative maintenance. You'd be amazed how an adjustment can help with migranes, lethargy, numbness, all sorts of minor ailments that can be triggered or exagerated due to minor misalignment of your spine.

In your case, the extent of the problem may be beyond the solution of a good Chiropractor, but I would suggest that a set of x-rays and review is well worth the trouble if there is any possibility that non-invasive correction is an option. It can get expensive, depending on your insurance coverage, but I would suggest that fusion is a final, last resort, no-going-back solution and I would want to investigate every other oportunity short of that first.

Best of luck to you, back problems are never fun.