I appreciate very much the replies. I vented in my post. Oh well. Fact is I expect a doctor in this type of situation to put aside more than ten minutes and address some of the other issues I am quite sure he has dealt with before and of which I neglected to ask due to the shear shock of what he said. He termed it as my spinal cord is bruised. When asked if that could be causing my headaches and other phantom pains he shrugged and said, "I don't know". I asked about my pain going through my shoulder and down my arm and into my hand. He simply shrugged. My neck "pops" in and out of joint in such a fashion that if I sleep with my neck in the incorrect position, my air supply cuts off and I awaken with a loud snort. I thought maybe apnea but it isn't, it's my neck "popping" backwards and putting extreme pressure against my adam's apple and cutting off my air. I made him put his hand on my neck and feel the anomaly. He said he didn't know why my neck did that but that it appears to be normal. I have always had very strong neck muscles. I suppose to compensate for the crappy neck. Now that I am getting older, those muscles aren't quite up to par so my bad structural neck problem is becoming more and more exaggerated and aggravated. I have good insurance. I have had several surgeries in the past including two discectomies, so the knife doesn't scare me but this doggone doctor did. He is supposed to be THE best here, highly recommended by everyone, recommended to me by another doctor that had work done by this guy. He scared me and my wife off without an iota of compassion. Would anyone out there let a guy like that decide the rest of your life? Not I.

I need to look up some info on this artery he has to "move out of the way so I can insert a screw just below it" He couldn't or didn't even tell me if these screws were going to fix the neck popping issue. I really am not sure at all the why and how of the repair. He said two long screws tying together some of the vertebraes and then something about some wire and cadaver bone. Halo for awhile and 6-9 months recovery provided I don't become paralyzed or die. Pain killers versus paralyzed or death. The obvious choice is painfully clear...lol

I got the CD of the MRI. I thought I would find some other "highly recommended" doctors, write them a letter, and send a copy of the report and CD, and see what they say. Do doctors work that way? Several people have told me to "get outside of the good ol' boy area"...IOW, go to another city because this one is controlled by only one hospital. In fact one hospital group controls two entire counties. I was thinking Birmingham, Montgomery, Mobile.