Full recovery from back surgery doesn’t necessarily mean total pain relief. One of the biggest obstacles to patient satisfaction after an operation is unrealistic expectations. Because the pain can arise from more than one source and because the surgery can only make things different but never put things back exactly as they were, the pain may not fully disappear. Patients need to understand and accept that, even when surgery is successful, their spines won’t be structurally “normal”. But that does not mean that the back won’t function normally. Your spine has lots of spare capacity and the good news is that surgery can improve spine function and relieve or diminish or even eliminate the pain. In other words, your back may not be perfect after the operation, but it will be more than good enough.