I've had good luck by visiting my PC or another doc of the exact same specialty, and asking them to review all the writeups of the other doc(s), note you need to get them and print them out or upload them depending on what that office wants to do, and ask them to figure everything out and explain it to you in plan language, including (or not) the rationale of the other doc and/or the actual reason (s) regarding conflicting recommendations.

It's a lot of work, but WELL worth the effort. You need to do your own research as well so when you go in you can ask them bona fide medical questions at their level. Good doc will appreciate your research and your questions, and will deem you worthy of more serious answers.

As they say, ask me how I know. I saved my ass at least one time by using this exact strategy. If I hand't I may have died with an infection sitting on my blood brain barrier, and a serious lung auto immune disease. Both of these were the result of doing this. You just gotta make it happen and keep banging heads until you get it competely figured out and treated.

However, I'm not saying this could work for spine and cervical issues. I think those are more diffiicult than the stuff like I just mentioned. But the answer is out there one way or the other. Spine disease sufferes deserve respect, such a tough row to hoe.

While 80-100% may sound like he's too picky, having surgery that that not only fails to fix it but makes it even worse also has to be considered as a reason not to do the procedure.

I'd also like to hear from the others after they hear the last guy's reasoning.

I agree with y’all completely. I guess at this point I will just circle back like I mentioned to the next to the last surgeon… the 3rd to say the same diagnosis before this last guy. It’ll be interesting to see what he says for sure. I will have plenty of questions written down for him.

I don't know if its an option, but Medtronic/Abbott/Boston Scientific all make spinal cord implants that are basically wires about the size of a string or paddles about 1/2 inch wide and 3" long that stimulate the spinal cord and block the pain.

I've seen great results on chronic pain patients that weren't candidates for more surgeries.

Don't get me wrong, its definitely a surgery but can be done under local with sedation because you need to be awake to let the doc know the placement is giving you the relief you need.

If you're close to San Antonio, I know a few folks that will steer you in the right direction.

Texas has no shortage of world-class physicians of all specialties.
What is the best known spine clinic in Texas?
The equivalent of MD Anderson, but for treating spinal conditions?
If i could find such a place, I would go there. I suspect that a difficult case would result in a conference, like a tumor board or cardiac catheter conference, where a number of physicians discuss a case and come to a recommendation.
I don’t know if there is such a thing, but I’d try looking for it.

I live in PA, but even when I was considering back surgery, I kept hearing that TX (Dallas I believe) was the Mecca of spine and neurosurgery. So, if this guy doesn't want to do it, you've got a lot more options yet available to you.

You've probably seen this guy's content before, but I'll link him and his channel HERE if it's helpful. I'm not immediately finding which videos were helpful to me, but of all of the online content, he's done some tele consults split-screen with patients reviewing imaging and giving second opinions. I learned a lot from these and was able to apply it to my imaging.

Great info guys, thank you all again for your input.

Just fyi again, I’ve had three different spinal cord stimulators over the years. For whatever reason I never had any success with them.

Just sent you a followup e-mail.

quote:

Originally posted by snoris:
Just sent you a followup e-mail.

Thanks Scott, I appreciate it