u/Hizam5

I (45M) L3/L4, L4/L5 fusion and decompression in December. Had L5/S1 12 years ago. Doc refused the latter with the other 2 on one rod. Everything went well with surgery. However low back pain/stiffness/lack of flexibility remained. Pain is less/different than pre-surgery, but stiffness and lack of flexibility is way worse.

Nerve pain is the most concerning. Before surgery I was having "typical" sciatic side effects -- tingling and pain down leg, and around left hip. But now it's a strange feeling, almost a numb pain in my right butt and right hip, and it presents itself almost always to the touch, not from movement.

I told the doc this at the post-op in March and he said everything was fine and the x-rays looked good. I am a slower healer than most, but this seems like a long time, especially compared to my surgery 12 years ago. I'm an active person, go to the gym, hike a lot, swim... so it's not like I'm sedentary, but I followed all the guidelines doc said regarding returning to activity. Been doing PT for 3.5 months and have only seen linear progress for a while with a very obvious plateau beginning a few weeks ago.

Have another follow up with doc in June.

I'm stressed and feel stuck.

Any suggestions are appreciated!

Have AT&T internet and when they came to add the new faster cables, they offered me a discount/lower bills/new phones if I switched from T-Mobile. Thought about it for a few weeks and decided the savings would be worth it.

The lady came to our house as some kind of “concierge” service, which I thought was very convenient.

She gave us 2 new phones with trade-ins and our monthly costs would go down substantially. We also got a new iPad that was supposed to be only $7/month. Overall, after our first payment that was going to be higher than usual, our monthly was supposed to be around $115, saving us over $60/month from what we had with T-Mobile. We were also supposed to get a Rewards card for the money we paid T-Mobile the the money we still owed.

Since then it’s been nothing but aggravation and hassle after hassle. The lady told us “call or text whenever you need help!”, and yet I will call and text and she takes days to respond even though I can see she read the text.

Our first bill was outrageously high — nearly $300. Supposedly it was because it takes “one billing cycle” for the discounts to apply (seems like a grift, but ok). No gift card and no iPad came. I reached out to the lady and she had me pay $77 “tax” for the iPad and needed me to send her all the past bills from T-Mobile.

This process took weeks because she was so difficult to get in touch with (“concierge” lol). Finally the iPad arrived in the mail. No Reward card.

I got my next bill, and it’s $250. I reach out to the lady. She tells me it’s because there’s a $35 activation on the iPad and a $20 monthly fee for the device as well as another $20 for the service. I’m pretty mad at this point because none of this was disclosed. She tells me to call AT&T directly. Customer service says there’s nothing they can do because now I own the iPad.

I the lady this and she ignores me.

I get an email that the gift cards are processing within the next 7-10 days — 3+ months after I switched. I wait 10 days and check and it says “rewards disqualified”, I assume because it’s well past the window because the lady chose to wait 3 months to submit them instead of right away.

Finally I get my latest bill and it’s now $165, which is the same as is was with T-Mobile, when literally the only reason for me switching was to save money, which was promised to me

I’m livid and really upset that this sales lady seemed to have conned me and then doesn’t help me with it.

I want to switch back but don’t want to incur fees and now I supposed OWN this iPad I only wanted because I was told it would only be $7/month.