Obviously he is selling his product and I am not buying and I should have edited that part out. I was recently told by a neuro-surgeon over the telephone after viewing my most recent MRI that I needed a five level fusion in my neck. He said it was one of the worse neck MRI's he had seen in his entire career. He is in his 50's. I hung up and had a major shake-on knowing that I had to get it together enough to begin sorting it all out. More appointments, getting second opinions from hopefully the best in the field, which takes time. Being depressed, I was dragging my heels. Another assault on my health, just dandy.

I called the neuro-surgeon back with more specific questions like, "if you fuse five vertebrae and plate it, isn't it a known fact that the two free moving vertebra's on each side of the stationary plate go in approx. seven years"? We only have seven so I guess I could kiss any neck movement goodbye. He did not deny that this is a well known problem.

Not having enough facts; I met with him once, he says "well Bonnie, you won't have tingling and numbness in your arm and fingers" I told him that I didn't have tingling and numbness in my arm and fingers. He jumps right over those words and proceeds to tell me about a level 4 and 5 fusion he did on two patients the week past. I thought if my MRI was one of the worse he has seen; what were theirs like to warrant what I consider very drastic surgery?

I hope I am fortunate enough that I can have less invasive treatment as conservative treatment no longer seems an option. Multi level spinal stenosis and pd have similar symptoms and this was the reason why it was over-looked.

Words are powerful and I always use pd in lower case instead of PD to take some of that power away.

I edited this in respect to the doctor who recently surfaced on this forum, mentioning the anti-doctor postings made him a little leery. I have been guilty of this too many times. It has to be a win/win for both and what would we do without them? I can see the far from perfect system they have to work in as well.