I had a compression fracture of T-12 years ago and had a fusion from T-10 through L-3 with a set of Harrison rods placed in. They had me on my back in a hospital bed for nearly 6 months unless I wore a back brace that resembles a removable body cast. I sure hope your recovery is less time and comes with less pain than what I endured years ago. Every time I hear about some one else getting a spinal fusion, I shudder at the thought! See if you can get your doctor to prescribe you a TENS unit while your still under his care. Trying to get one later is much more difficult. You'll thank me for it later.
I sure hope you're feeling better now! I don't know if I'll need a TENS or not. You had a multi-level fusion, which is far worse than a single. And I don't know how long ago you had your surgery, but they've really made some nice advances over the past 10 years or so and it's not nearly as bad as it it used to be in most cases.
I had a TLIF with a PEEK cage and instrumentaion at L4-L5 only. They used BMP (so no bone from my hip) and because of my history as a smoker, they already have me on a bone growth stimulator. Of course my wife had to joke, "I'm not so sure you need THAT!"

Anyhoo, I only have one rod between L4&L5 and other than the pain from the intrusion of the surgery itself, I do have some pretty bad pain in my leg from pre-surgery nerve damage, but only when I walk too much. This is my first fusion, but I've also had
two prior discectomies on this same disc in the past 7 years, which is why this time we decided it was time to fuse it. I've had this type of pain before and I know the pain in my leg will get better. So far the Percocet is working pretty well (but obviously I can't do my job on that).
Out of curiosity, would you not agree that nerve pain can be about the worst pain a person can have? Not only the shooting and electrical pains (which I actually consider moderate), but I'm talking about that cramping pain in your leg where it feels like someone is taking your exposed muscle and squeezing and twisting the crap out of it. The kind of pain that makes you want to put a bullet in your head (and folks, I am not condoning nor do I recommend that). I'd always heard that child birth was quite painful but have seen posts in boards where women with the pain I described above said that was far worse than child birth.
And I don't mean to downplay anybody else's pain. I have heard that cancer is quite bad too and there are other very painful conditions that I hope to never experience. All I'm saying is that I couldn't imagine a worse pain. Everyone gets nerve pain every now and then, but until you've had it at its worst, nobody quite understands how bad it can be. When this first acted up again, a guy at work couldn't understand why I was bed-ridden. "Oh, I've had sciatica for years.... it's not THAT bad."

That level of pain was pre-surgical though, from the nerve getting compressed (my disc herniation was 22mm at its worst! 8-o ). Now that the pressure is off the nerve it isn't nearly as bad, but it'll still hurt until the nerve heals.
Sorry for being WAY off topic here! I blame the drugs I am on (it's just so darn convenient).
