Chuck,
I think I understand exactly how you feel..
My life is being wasted away on drugs and nothingness in terms of waiting around for FDA approval of 2 level ADR to be approved by CA. Utilization Review (vs. allowing a skilled surgeon to use his or her perogative on "off label use") who should want to return a person with my knowledge and skills back to the work force but doesn't give a hoot as I'm just a number and it would cost too much for me to have surgery again...which I'm sure is peanuts to the insurance co.
I guess the insurance co. is OK with the "off label use" of Neurontin for nerve pain vs. using it as anti seizure medication .. Oh, but that is relatively cheap to maintain me on as is Methadone to keep me drugged and slush brained..
Really it's very frustrating. At this point, however, I have to find another treating doctor who will at least make the effort to see if I'm still a candidate for multilevel ADR and propose it to CA.WC UR .. then if denied go thru appeals..
Meanwhile to obtain a WC attorney again I must put a retainer fee down tho mostly, there must be a reason to engage the firm again as they will not resume any action should there be no legal reason in the WC realm.
Settling is something I must definately have an attorney for however, first I'm checking into this with some material gained from
www.nolo.com
I will try the route of WC first, and see how much longer that might take to get where I could possibly be however, I'm sure I'm fighting time and physical deterioration with the surrounding entities besides the disc.. that is a strong consideration also.
Means, well, I have none other than credit and what I could gain from settling so this is where my $$ would come from and nowhere else..
One has to take a leap of faith, one way or another when considering spine surgery.. and even in some cases, it's how geographically far one might leap!
Take care, stay as mentally strong as you can throughout.. positive, hopeful, and focused..