Thanks Leesa!

The Doc I saw yesterday was a Orthopedic Spine doc, only he used his P.A. to do the diagnosis. There are only 2 places in my area that even deal with back issues and they both only have one spine doc so my choices are rather limited. I'm waiting to hear back from the other clinic to see if they can get me in.

The MRI clearly showed the disc pushing into my spinal cord.The side view showed about about 25% compression at the C5-6 vertebra.The MRI cross section showed the disc protruding into the spinal canal and into the forminal processes which is why I'm skeptical as to the logic behind P.T. and epidurals.The surgery center that is going to do the epidural is connected to the hospital that has the spinal ortho surgeon so there is definetly a financial gain for them for me to go thru the epidurals and then perhaps 6 months down the road spinal surgery.They have quite the racket going on!

Anyway, thanks for your input! I'm definetly getting a second opinion.I didn't get a good vibe from this doctor and hopefully the next one I see will at least spend more than 5 minutes in the exam room with me.

Best regards,
Ken