Hi Paula,

Why do the doctors have to spend so many years and pay for costly education if they are not going to allowed to help their patients as they see fit?

I went to an orthopedic surgeon on Feb. 2nd. He wants to request an MRI test to see what is causing me so much pain in my left shoulder. The wire from my DBS is covering the part of the shoulder he wants to see. He would also like to see if their is tears in muscle tissue as bone spurs showed up in the x-ray. The MRI is located in his offices and up until Feb. 1, 2007, he would have been able to have it done on the same day. Now, however, a new procedure has been put in place by my HMO that requires he send his request to a different group to get approval for the test. If it is disapproved, I will have to go through the process of arguing my need for the test adding more stress to a disease that thrives on it.

Vicky