As everyone else, I too am sorry to hear of your troubles. Kind of figures the back surgery wouldn't help much. Been told by a general practitioner (family doc) won't sign off for me getting back surgery. No mincing of words. "They'd only fuck you up worse."
Hope you're squonking with a mech mod. If you're using regulated, prepare for holy war. *lol* Nah, use what suits you. *hug* I'm not into regulated squonkers, ... yet. I'm considering building one using Raspberry Pi as a board/chip set after some recent thinking on it. Meanwhile mechs keep on keeping on for me. A few minor issues but nothing a bit of upkeep doesn't help.