[Dutchman working in France]

I am now about two weeks post-op and feeling a lot better, so I'll take the time to answer your questions, as well as I can. And remember: this comes from a Dutch man who has lived for 11 years in France now.

Tests and scheduling them.
All those tests mentioned above were iniated by the surgeon. I had told him about my previous back surgeries and my current problems. He then wanted more "hard" information so he wrote out the prescriptions for a MRI, a CT scan, a Bone scintigraphy, a dynamic Xray study, and some blood tests. He asked me to come back to him when I had all the results. That very same day I called the different places where I would do these tests (I could choose to go anywhere for the tests, but to make it easier for myself I did the MRI scan, the CT scan and the Bone Scintigraphy all in the same hospital (l'Archet in Nice). They all could fit me into their schedule within the next two weeks. For the dynamic X-ray study my surgeon preferred that I would go to a specific place where they did good work: "Dr Juncker radiographie", also in Nice. The blood tests could be done anywhere so I scheduled them for the next week also, right next door to where I live.

Between the last test and the earliest opportunity to see my surgeon again there was a gap of about one week, on account of him being fully booked.

When I saw him again on May the 22nd. He was pretty clear in his diagnosis: my L5/S1 needed ADR (or, as a last resort, a fusion). He wasn't sure about L4/L5, there seemed to be an annular tear visible in the MRI, so to check if that was causing any pain he ordered a discogram for that, while at the same time already setting a date for surgery. The earliest opportunity was June 13, _IF_ I was willing to pay extra for,"private", otherwise it would be later in "public" surgery.

The difference between public and private practice: some days he operates as a private surgeon, and you have to pay 1600 Euro; other days are "public" surgery days, you don't pay anything, but since it is a teaching hospital, it might be an intern, a "student surgeon" who operates on you. I didn't want that, I wanted him, so I chose "private" (also, we have a "top up" insurance which will reimburse us the 1600 euro.) This 1600 Euro would prove to be the biggest out-of-pocket expense by far.

Never was I given "a hard time" when presenting these prescriptions. I had to push a bit to get the discogram done in the time between the 22 May and June 13 dates, since I did not want to postpone the surgery date; but by explaining the situation we managed to get an appointment for the discogram very fast, shoved in between some other discogram appointments. You may have to wait a long time before there is an opening in the schedule of that day, they said, but in the end I only waited for half an hour.