Wow. So sorry about your son. I hope the screws in the back are working out well for him. Back issues are terrible - the back affects every move you make.
Kudos to you for getting the surgery approved. So many people who are sick, elderly, tired and in chronic pain have no one to advocate for them. To spend hours working through the hoops, the paperwork, the endless, circuitous phone trees, always bumping you from one department to another, then putting you on hold for hours.....
If I know what Tricia means when she talks about her "head exploding" regarding these threads, it's because I've dealt with insurance companies!