Zorro, by the way... Dr. Smith is my third opinion to determine if surgery is appropriate.
I went to a woman neurosurgeon in the early fall of 2006 til the end of the year..she's the one that put me through all the physical therapy, pills (most of which I wouldn't take which pissed her off), injections and discogram. She would NOT do the disc replacement on me (not trained to do it-so I found out) and kept pushing me toward the traditional anterior lumbar fusion. I kept telling her that a regular fusion was NOT what I wanted and she wouldn't listen!!!!
The second opinion surgeon (Dr. Kelley) said "it's not bad at all..not even to justify taking pain pills and he would NOT operate on me". He was a snot nosed young rich kid that probably has never had any pain in his life and this is his first job. I thought my husband was going to whip him right there in the exam room.
Dr. Smith backs the first surgeon that ONLY surgery will fix it! Dr. Smith said that the discogram was totally unnessary because it is very clear from the MRI alone that the disc is TOAST at L5-S1!!!!
Funny part is that Dr Smith and Dr Kelley are in the same neorosurgery group and Dr. Smith is the chief honcho so I know there were some angry words spoken bewteen them when Dr. Smith found out what Dr. Kelley had said to me!! Ha HA Sure made me feel better..
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