I am experiencing increased stress at the impending operation. As last time, I am second-guessing my decision. My main concern is, "Is this actually going to work? Or am I going to be in even more pain after the operation?"

In addition, I am am increasingly aware of the discomfort in the donor site, ie. where the bone chips came from to fill the cage in my spine. This is just psychological but I am reliving the pain I felt after the first operation, a nasty burning pain in my hip which I can't escape, no matter how I move. As I have just read, this is normal. Another article from 2002 suggests that an allograft would be better for me as it would avoid this. Failing that (and seemingly commonsensical) it's not a good idea to have a separate incision just to harvest bone.

Interestingly, there is not likely to be a difference between the donor site pain this time. This 2005 article says that the anterior and posterior donor sites cause the same level of discomfort :(. I had been trying to imagine it in the last few weeks and was hoping that a posterior donor site would be less painful since is is deeper in the body. Hmm.