Ann,

I'm very to sorry you're not feeling better after surgery. We're both in the Bay Area and I think we had the same surgeon. My surgeon sort of gave up on me once I didn't have the hoped for response to surgery. When I asked him what he had learned from the surgeries he'd done since he did mine, he said, "To pick my patients more carefully." I said, "Do you mean that I shouldn't have had surgery in the first place?" He didn't answer.

I think the doctors could learn a great deal from those of us who had "failed" procedures. Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be long term follow up. We mess up their desired surgery result statistics. Too often it seems the surgery failures are pawned off on the patients.

Before I had surgery, my doctor referred to me in medical reports as a "very motivated patient." I'd be interested to see how he explains my outcome, and others like me, now.

I hope things get better going forward.

Take care,
Kelly