I have never met anyone who did not sincerely believe that their planned back surgery was going to relieve them of their awful back pain. Sometimes it does. But often it doesn’t. It does relieve nerve root pain reliably, but not back pain. For people with Spondylolisthesis, opening up the exits of the nerve roots and fusing the slipped vertebra on to the one below can be helpful if they have sciatica (leg pain).Was his surgery mostly an ‘attention getter’ then??
He was unaware of post operative pain/limitations?