Sending good thoughts your way tomorrow morning Johanna!

"You Go Girl"
Well be waiting to hear how everything went and ready to do the Happy Happy Joy Dance
Hugs and Good Vibes..
Dawn

i think it must be very hard not to have a lot of frustration tied up in being involved in a workers compensation case. i cannot imagine how that adds to the burden of being a TOS patient and so many of us carry multiple dx on top of that.

i made a statement earlier, maybe in this thread but perhaps 'twas in another, about historical bias towards top TOS surgeons in a certain part of the country on the part of this forum. I probably shouldn't have said that, and i'd like to apologize. i like to think we are moving away from that sort of thing.

as far as dr. ahn is concerned i can only say that, i am a medicare patient, and i have never ever felt discriminated against by him on that basis. he also never seemed to hold against me the fact that, despite the fact that it was he who dx'd me after many, many years of being misdiagnosed (and may i say not particularly well treated) by some of the finest physicians in los angeles - i was in fact on his surgery schedule for oct. of 2005 - i ultimately went to a rival surgeon in denver, CO for the first rib resection in nov. of that year (based on the aftercare program offered by that surgeon if you're curious...).

when i wondered aloud about consulting ahn for a re-do, his colleague at UCLA, dr. larry khoo, a neurosurgeon, whom i gather to be a personal friend of his as well, told me on both of these points: "sam doesn't make his money off of patients like you" and "he's not like that," respectively. (i had been in to see khoo for cervical syndrome issues, for i am multi blessed don't you know...)

i've said privately to forum friends before and i think it bears repeating here: it is my personal belief that dr. ahn is misunderstood sometimes. does he have the warm and personable bedside manner of a dr. annest or a dr. sanders? maybe not, or not every day, at least, but then let's be honest here; few surgeons and even fewer geniuses...and i do believe we are talking about a genius here...do. moody is the word that comes to mind. non-communicative, you have to draw him out sometimes. the man lives in his head. acts like he's got someplace to be in precisely four minutes, and probably does!

he may seem arrogant (so am i). tempestuous. OK. i'll bet he doesn't like to do paperwork, who does? maybe he earned that reputation; i've sure met more than one dr. who seemed either utterly intimidated or thoroughly disgusted with the man.

but i, for one, would like for us as a forum to resist the urge to make statements that could be construed as defamatory, or at the very least hearsay, against any doctor, at least by name. and i think those of you who know me, know i struggle with a fair amount of doctor anger after what i've personally been through in my own TOS struggle! no, this is for our sake as much as anything that i say this.

dr. ahn is in private practice now, has been for over a year. what his behavior, or that of his office, has been in the past, is in the past. can we leave it there? do we really know it for a fact anyway? i am just not sure about any of it.

again, i am not a W/C case - i cannot imagine the heartache of those particular legal nightmares. at the risk of making enemies, i will say i also believe one of the reasons the system is just such a mess is because there are people who have filed false claims and lied or partially lied or their doctors have...none of which applies to legitimate TOS'ers mind you and i don't mean to imply that by any stretch. please don't misunderstand me. (i do come from a long, long line of republicans ---- doesn't make me one, though! don't shoot! don't shoot!)

not sure why i insist on talking about a subject i know really very little about - W/C being right up there with brain surgery and rocket science.

i just think it's wise to be careful. and better for the healing process.

for us all.

that's just what i think.

thanks for letting me get this out and i mean no disrespect to anyone.

alison