[Billy B]

Hello everyone. My name is Billy B. I just turned 30, and for the last 8 months I have had progressive pain expansion starting under my left shoulder blade and now running through my shoulder, upper and lower arms, and into my hand. Sometimes it runs through the top part of my chest. I live in Hawaii and my wire convinced me about 6 months ago to go and see a doctor. I worked my ways through several here but they wanted months to get anything done. Finally my family convinced me to go to the Mayo Clinic. There in less than 72 hours ran me through everything you could imagine and determined that I would be best off with a fusion surgery for herniation at C6-C7 with an annular tear impinging the nerve. I opted to try the guided epidural shot first, and they got me in for that in less than an hour. I was on a plane that afternoon and on my way back to the islands. I got my first night of sleep in bed with my wife that night in what seemed like a very long time. The next day the pain was on its way back and continued to spiral down over a few days right back to where I was plus a little more. No more bed. No more wife. Banished back to my chair by the pain. I called the Mayo Clinic and they told me they would be happy to get me scheduled. I have spoke to my PA about it and I ask about the possibility of an ADR over a fusion and he told me that my NS was qualified with the Prestige ST. Of course out of pocket thanks to BC/BS. I have been poking around ever since to find more information and I have landed here. Thankful that Harrison has brought us all together. I have 5 days and 3000 miles to my surgery. Of course I still have me reservations. I used to run, hike, surf, dive, and spend as much time on my motorcycle as possible. One dive to catch some materials on a job site and all that has slowly slipped away. On a plane even the Percocet can not stop the pain. Of course being 6'6" in coach is always painful. Any advice anyone might have would be appreciate. Best of luck to us all.