How much will all of this cost?

im sitting at a computer at work looking at your pics on photobucket and another tech walked by and said... "hey go back to that last pic.. it was of the ranger.. he said i think i saw that truck down the road for sale"

 

Ah, my "favorite" local car dealer:16suspect I don't live far from it, just behind the casino.

 

He did, but that was about 6 months ago. It was parked in my driveway.

 

If I were in your position I'd hit up a local tech school, high school or community college. They would probably love to get into a project like that and it might be cheap for the labor.

Good luck with the back, my L5-S1 is bulging like Oprah's belly but is very tolerable at this point. Nice easy workouts, walking and stretching have helped a bunch.

 

Thanks for the suggestion. I might really have to consider looking into something like that. Good luck to you as well!

 

When I was in tech school we were happy to have real world projects so it seemed like a good idea, hope it works out.

Not sure what your exact issues are with the back but whatever you do DO NOT take one doctors opinion. My wife had a collapsed disc at L4-L5 (normal thickness on the right and flat on the left) and our local quacks stuffed her into a pain management loop. I pushed her to get out of town so we went to Sacred Heart in Spokane, WA. They acknowledged her problem, gave her options and sent her home to consider it. She decided on fusion and they did they procedure where they went through the abdomen to remove the disc and insert the spacer. Next they rolled her over and did the rods and screws, all with out cutting more than 2 cm of muscle (faster healing).

They kicked her out of the hospital less than 48 hours after the operation! When we went back for the 5 week follow up they gave her permission to go back to riding her horses "within reason". At 4 months the fusion had begun to really take hold and she was cleared to go back to her normal routines. She feels better now than she has in the last 8 years.

Sorry for the long read but just thought I'd share her experience.

 

I appreciate any info I can get. My Dr. is pretty much thinking I need surgery, but we have to jump through all the hoops before we can get there. I also haven't heard much good about fusions, so it's a bit scary.

 

Good luck with the local tech school, been my experience with the one here that they don't like to waste their class time on obsolete vehicles. Tried the one here to get some work done on a 68 Merc, but that's what they told me.

 

It's probably a long shot, but I guess it can't hurt to ask.