Advice Welcome - and Really Needed!

[Ellabelle]

I found this site while researching, and have been reading as much as possible for the past day. Here is my situation, and I sure could use some advice. We are stationed in Heidelberg, Germany, and are due to fly back to the US in 2 weeks. I have been fighting a degenerative disc (L-5, S-1) for about 12 years. It flares up, but the pain never goes away completely. However, I'm able to manage it with advil and sleep med at night. I'm not very active because there's not a ton I can do without discomfort, but I'm not in unbearable pain all the time. My left outside 3 toes stay tingly most of the time. MRI was done at Landstuhl, and my family practice doctor put through all the paperwork for me to have disc replacement surgery. I saw Dr. Feil at ATOS Klinik just this past Friday, and he recommended the surgery - was very nice, very assured of a good outcome, etc. I have to make a decision FAST as I understand this type of surgery is not often available or approved in the US. (I would not be having the replacement that looks like two metal poker chips which rotate and slide, but the "cage" type - not a fusion - he says he has equally good results with both, and that this surgery is far superior to the gold standard fusions in the US.) If I wait till we are back in the US, I will have to start all the paperwork over again.

My question - should I go ahead, schedule it fast, postpone our flight home by a couple of weeks (he said 2 1/2 weeks from surgery to fly date) and just do it, OR should I wait till things are worse? Could I go another 12 years? Even 5 years? I could live with it the way it is now. I cannot seem to have peace about whether this surgery is worth the risk.