Thank you Theresa, I will check out the web for selective nerve root blocks.
They tried Neurontin on Alan two times, he became violently ill.

the only thing at the time that worked was the fentanyl patch.
But he no longer has the need to use it.

My confusion is: If the endoscopic discectomy is a much easier procedure and does the same thing then WHY DON'T ALL THE DOCTORS PERFORM THIS PROCEDURE???

This drives me crazy.

I faxed alan's mri reports to the Spinal place in Los Angeles (the place where they do the endo thing). The guy on the phone said "Oh, your husband's problem is easily fixable.

Yeah, that's great but who on earth has $20,000 to pay for this operation. And we don't think that his medicare HMO will cover it but we are looking into that. His insurance would cover an open spine procedure but not a minimally invasive one (now how stupid is this?).

I just don't get this.

melody