[Justin]

Hey Cathy, if you can swing the finances I see no reason for you to wait, especially with a solid diagnosis and proposed surgical intervention by arguably the worlds most experienced multi-level surgeon.

Your pain level (3-4/10) is low, so this will be on your side during recovery. Your recovery should be much faster than someone with significant pathology that is causing 7+ pain--this type of pain exhausts pain receptors and tissue change at the site of injury can be extreme (inflammatory mediators, surrounding tissue fibrosis/possible necrosis, ligamentous hypertrophy/inflammation, decreased facet synovium/presence of cysts/sclerosis, etc.). Plus, decreased disc height places extra stress on other joints such as your SI joints.

By the way, this is NATURAL to try and "justify" your surgery. I've been through this hell twice before and I'm still trying to justify my surgery -- "I'm not that bad" / "I should put surgery off, others are worse than me" / "I can wait it out until I have to move forward."

I think you are thinking about this the right way -- get in, get it done and hopefully get back to living your life without living a life of "what ifs."

I wish you the very best and if you need to talk more by email/PM don't hesitate.