Kathy, hope your surgery went well and that you are recovering nicely. Fran, you have had more than one person's share of back trouble and hope this coming surgery will be the last needed. I got my morning glories potted, 8 on the ground pots and two hanging baskets. Thanks for your help. Jim, I wish my grape hyacinth plants would reseed. I love them and seems they get fewer and fewer each year. Ronnie, please post photos of your dahlias in bloom. I considered adding a dahlia bed but that will have to wait until next year. Finally got my dahlias divided and potted. I have 12 pots that I move around the garden where ever a bit of color is needed. Usually start them earlier for early bloom. Remy, I thought I'd try Stump of the World as it was your favorite. I planted three seeds of each variety in a cup and most germinated but I only got one Stump seedling and inadvertently gave it away last week. Hoping my neighbor shares the tomatoes so I can try one. Sue, the tomato forum is full of suggestions about good tasting late tomatoes and there are many tomato growers willing to share seeds. One of my favorite varieties is Pink Caspian. Rain, either too little or too much. We are in a drought here, over 3 inches below normal. This is the driest May since the 1930s dust bowl days. I started watering last week after hearing rain forecast and still getting just a sprinkle or nothing. The only good thing from the lack of rain is that the lilacs have kept their bloom longer than usual. Neighbor has a hedge of lilacs and I open my window and breath in their aroma. I am trying to catch up on gardening as did no gardening (except give tours of my garden) for two weeks but had a great time with family members, visiting, going to the theatre and to the symphony and museums. Spent the last few days working in the garden, dividing perennials, transplanting, getting plants potted for a couple of plant swaps, getting veg garden ready to plant beans, cucks and tomatoes this afternoon. Haven't started planting out any of my wintersown seedlings but there are some ready so maybe this weekend between a plant swap and anniversary celebration.

First off let me say thank you to Linda for posting that image... I still really want that DL ;-) I would love to reply individually to each of you but as I can only sit for short periods right now due to the pain... plus the meds the doc has me on don't help my brain to function properly LOL... so I am just going to post a single reply.. even though so many of you were sooooooo kind to offer advice from your experiences, advice which I'm going to heed BTW.. I am calling up a specialist tomorrow as the doc that saw me was just an ER doc.. not a specialist and even he suggested that I go to a spine doc to get a more thorough review of my case but he told me that I better schedule the surgery now or I'd be waiting for at least a month or so from the date I schedule to get it done... so I did. From what I read out of the paper the doc gave me the surgery is supposed to fuse my spine over the herniated discs... supposedly this will relieve the pain.. but what I was told 15 years ago when they wanted to do this was that it would reduce my range of movement and that is something I absolutely DO NOT WANT! That is the main reason I don't want surgery... I've done a lot of research in the two years following my initial injury back then and did some more tonight but I will wait until I get a copy of my records from the hospital to do more research as it should have the diagnosis written on them... somewhere. The ER doc also suggested that I will have to get an MRI as the X-ray can't show tissue damage just bone... DUH!! Like I didn't know that already *sarcasm here* I used to work in a vet clinic so I have actually seen a surgery done on a dog with a herniated disc.. and although the dog appeared to be better after he still had lingering problems... they did something called a laminectomy to the dog... something which I have read tonight they can do for me to help but something about the instability of the spine caused by degenerative disc problems... I'm not sure... and I'm not thinking all too clearly as the meds are kicking in.... so I'll let it go for now.. and post more when I'm more conscious. LOL ttfn Mystic.

Bop, I also had spinal stenosis along with the bad discs. Sounds like you have a surgeon you trust, so I would trust his judgement on the epidurals. Keep us updated. Nancy, good luck with your surgery...I had L4, L5, and S1 fused and a laminectomy for the spinal stenosis. I was worried about it also but was so tired of living with the pain. I'm so glad I finally had the surgery. Keep us posted on your progress also.

My 22 year old daughter just had her 2nd spinal fusion on Dec 19. Her first one was when she was 17-- it was l5-s1. This time they removed the old screws and replaced them with larger screws (the original were pediatric screws); they fused up to l3--and added 4 more screws plus the rods. They also put 'cross bars'. She is getting along wonderfully. Her pain level is down to 3 or 4. A lot of that may be because of her age! Also, the surgeon didn't use bone from her hip this time. My daughter says that made a big difference. Because of her previous surgery, she was a candidate for a 'miracle-gro' type of artificial bone that insurance companies don't pay for over 99% of the time. By 3 months out on her first surgery, she was back to practicing varsity basketball. By six months, she was at 0 pain level and playing varsity ball. I am sure this time will be very similar. We have heard all the horror stories about how she will never be pain free. She will have all sorts of limitations, blah, blah, blah by having surgery but it just hasn't been true. The surgery was the best thing we could have done for her. Getting active as soon as you are physically able will help. I think she is walking well over a mile a day already. She walks and then changes to the ice brace to help keep the swelling down. She has a condition called spondylolisthesis, which is the cause of her problems. Good luck!