Melody,

That man sounds amazing! You have to know he is probably in incredible pain. So, to retain his sense of humor is a wonderful accomplishment. I truly admire folks like that.

Okay, for the discs and fusions and such. A good NS will tell you that they CANNOT guarantee pain relief. What they are looking for is instability and neurological deficits. If you present with these, there is not much else you can do except opt for surgery otherwise the neurological deficits CANNOT be reversed and you WILL become disabled. It is not like PN where there is hope that nerves will regenerate. This is quite the opposite...it does NOT get better. I have had two cervical fusions for two different reasons. Do I still have pain? Yes, spasms. But not to the degree I had it before. It was the most absolute horrible pain I have ever had in my life! The PN is bad enough but this was screaming, horrendous pain. For instance, I have given birth lol and had a hysterectomy. Both of those count as a 2 for me on the pain scale. The cervicogenic headaches were a 5000! I really thought I was dying.

Anyway, I was NOT a candidate for the cervical ADR. One, because I smoke, I know, I am a bad girl. But the real truth was because I have degenerative disc disease all up and down my cervical spine. Again, the criteria is EXTREMELY STRICT. I could list it all out here. But suffice to say...you almost have to be in the utmost perfect health and basically only have ONE level that is bad. Yes, they do them in Germany and they do multiple levels. But, really, who has the money to fly to Germany? And besides that, from what I have read, a big risk with an ADR is revision surgery which can be life threatening. So, even IF I had been a candidate, and from what I have read, I am glad I went with the standard fusion. Now, there are people that have had them and are doing quite well. But I often wonder, for how long. Fusions or ADR's they both have their risks and pro and cons.

I called Mayo to speak with the scheduling and find out more about what they had in mind for me. And the good news is this odd bit. The spine surgeons are not allowed to see spine patients; the neurosurgeons do.

And, only two neurosurgeons are allowed to see complex cases, which I am.

There's a tight procedure there. First, a back patient MUST see the pain doc. He's the gatekeeper. He then refers to a neurologist. Only the neurologist is allowed to refer to the neurosurgeons. If the neurologist asks for neurosurgery consultation, I will see her the only reason I am coming is to see a neurosurgeon, and that if I have to wait a week, I will be out way too much money from earnings (I work for myself and have two kids in college) while I twiddle my thumbs there. I told her I will not come unless she can tell me that these two guys have open appointments next week.

So, she put me on hold and called their secretaries. It's "possible", she said, to see one of them. Not definite, but possible. Both are working, and one has an opening, although it could be filled by the time my consultation request reaches him.

However, sometimes they'll see an add-on patient. I'm just going to fight to be an add-on.

But how odd that the spine department has its own surgeons and none are the ones who do this kind of work.

I'm feeling better. Still very very stressed, but better. The idea of going all the way to Minnesota and spending all the money and time and stress to see some little kid just out of training was not working well for me.

So, tomorrow I pack.

LizaJane,

I must be missing something. The spine surgeons ARE the neurosurgeons. Or do you mean Orthopedic Surgeons? In any case, you WANT a Neurosurgeon. I hope your wait is not too long and you can get in timely. Not to sound rude, but I am sort of thinking along the lines of what Glenntaj said...why the trip specifically to Mayo? He said you have world class hospitals in NY. So, I am just curious.