Does This Seem "fishy"....

[rpowell01]

I finally go to see my VA Primary care provider about my herniated disc and the reverse curvature in my cervical spine. Immediately after reading the private radiologist report he asked me if I had private insurance. I stated yes, then he recommended me to go see a private orthopedic surgeon down the road. After talking with somebody today you all know we both kind of see this "fishy"..

1.Why would a VA Internal Medicine Doctor recommend me to go see this certain Orthopedic Surgeon and not Bay Pines Orthopedic Surgeons? Why ask me if I had private insurance when in fact I am SC'd for my cervical/neck anyway? Isn't this unethical for him to do this actually and against VA policy?

2. I wouldn't let a Orthopedic Surgeon touch my neck if he paid me to do it. I want a Neurosurgeon to do it because every person who told me that a Orthopedic Surgeon who did their neck DID NOT do a good job and they wished they would have went to a Neurosurgeon.... I called Bay Pines Patient Advocacy today to ask them if they had any Neurosurgeons at Bay Pines. One of the so called "top" veteran hospitals in Florida and they do not have a Neurosurgeon there? OMG!!!! But they do have Orthopedic Surgeons!!! WOW!!! I did ask the person if it was ethical for my Primary Care Provider to recommend me to a Private Orthopedic Surgeon even though Bay Pines has them and her answer was "No that is not ethical" and then she asked what CBOC is he in. I told her Sebring, then she transferred me to Ft Myers Advocacy who is over Sebring. I didn't get to talk with anyone there but hopefully tomorrow she will be in.

Doesn't this seem odd or fishy he would do this? IMHO it seems there is a "kick back" thing going on here. Yes I am going to refuse this and talk with the Patient Advocacy person tomorrow about getting me to see a Neurosurgeon and ask her if it is ethical for him to do that. If she says it isn't then I am going to file a complaint against him. I might stir up some soup on this but this guy wouldn't listen to me for 6 months last year, and now that I have the proof of what is going on, he wants to send me to one of his bros...I think not!!!! I want the VA to take care of this and I should not nor will I pay one cent to have this corrected. Plus, I know it will probably cause me to be out of work for awhile so I want the VA to at least compensate me for it temporary...

BTW for information for others. If you have a neck strain with a bunch of spasms in your neck. Please get it corrected somehow if you can. If you don't you will end up in my situation with a herniated disc being caused by a reverse curvature in my cervical spine which is caused by all the spasms I have had for 15 years. That reverse curvature is very dangerous and have been known to cause death in patients. They can repair the curvature without surgery if caught early. For me I will probably have to have surgery on this because my neck is straighter than a 4x4.....

Be care careful with who your VA Primary Care Provider sends you to....

Edited March 18, 2011 by rpowell01

[rpowell01]

Well I was at work today and was talking with a co-worker of mine. Her husband who also works there went to the same surgeon my primary care provider want to send me to. It was weird me telling her all my symptoms and she said her husband had the same exact symptoms. Whenever I say exact I mean exact. I wrote all of them down, read them off to her and she said yep those were it. But, he dealt with it for 4 years where mine has only been 1 year 2 months now. But he got to the point where he actually lost control of his sense of thought and was driving home one day from work and got lost. I do not want to end up like that so today I made an appointment with the private surgeon my primary care provider wants me to go to. I know now he is looking out for my best interest. This surgeon basically explained to my friend that therapy and pain management does not work on these types of issues. He said they are waste of $. Now, my questions are this:

1. If the surgeon goes in and corrects the herniated disc will he also correct the bulge disc at the same time? I have a C5-6 herniation left side into the left foraminal area resulting in left foraminal stenosis. Also C2-3 is bulged adn C6-7 is bulged. I also have straightening of the cervical lordosis with mild reversal of the cervical curvature with mild torticollis most likely due to spasms. I understand there is a chance I will have 2-3 fusions but I would rather have that than the pain and suffering I have been going through for the past year!!!

2. If I have the surgery and the surgeon wants me to stay out of work for lets say 6 months, how do I file for temporary 100% for those 6 months?

3. I guess my next question would be if the surgeon also tells me I am not allowed to go back to work how do I file for 100% P & T whenever I am only rated at 40% right now. I know the fusion will probably cause my rating to go up because it will significantly impact my ROM so I know I can file an increase but I don't seem to understand the direction or way to file for P & T if a surgeon might say I cannot work because of the fusions. I already know that he will probably not allow me to go back to work in the field I am in being a Corrections Officer because of the physical force that my duties call for and opening 400lb doors will not help either.....This surgeon told my friend that he is not allowed to go back to work so now he is medically retired. My Friend is so stubborn that he wanted to come back to work and the surgeon's office actually called our work and told them he is not allowed to come back. Good thing is the surgeon's office help send in his SSDI claim....

Thank you everybody because your inputs have helped me a lot and hopefully I will get my life back soon!!!! If this surgeon tells me I cannot go back to work, hopefully I will be going fishing soon....

What is so weird about today is I work in another county than I live in. They live in a different county than I do but they work in the same county I do. Small world isn't it?

Edited March 28, 2011 by rpowell01

[Chuck75]

The only way to determine what the surgeon plans on doing is to ask detailed questions, and get answers you understand. Even then, surgeons make decisions "on the fly" once into an operation.

Part of the decision making process has to do with how well a patient is doing during the operation. Another consideration is ease of access to the second area of concern.

Finally, if it's in a VA hospital, and some others, scheduled operating room times can be quite rigid. A doctor that takes longer than expected on a repeated basis can have problems.

As to my opinion on spine/back injury.

I have several damaged "disks" etc. in my lower back, due originally to a compression injury many decades ago.

I say it's related to handling and loading ammunition on antiaircraft gun mounts and rocket launchers in and around Vietnam.

The VA has another opinion, naturally.

Some have surgery, and get relief. Others do not. I was always advised to not consider surgery unless and until the pain becomes constant and debilitating.

Further, when I was injured, X-rays did not show much of anything. Turned out that soft tissue injury (disks, etc) are not always obvious on an X-ray.

At the time, the only test that was considered definitive involved injecting dye into the spinal cord. Milo-gram? Anyway, the doctors also recommended against that.

Seems that there was a real possibility of causing further damage. What really frosted me was that the service exit "medical exam" doctor refused to put anything down on paper.

(Unless I consented to and underwent the previously mentioned Milo-gram, against previous medical advice.) Much later a CAT scan and MRI showed the damage, and the cause of intermittent pain.

At that time of the CAT scan and MRI, I was told that it was very fortunate that the size of the openings in my spine for the nerve canal were reasonably large, or I would likely have been partially paralyzed.

Even today, over forty years after the original injury, doctors are still saying the same thing to me. "Don't elect surgery unless the pain becomes constant", etc.

Having said all of that, My mother in law had a neck and back injury, underwent surgery, and it was fully successful. No pain, etc after things healed.

I would suggest that you look into some of the newer microscopic back surgery methods that are minimally invasive, and reduce the chances of nerve damage due to internal scarring.

Well I was at work today and was talking with a co-worker of mine. Her husband who also works there went to the same surgeon my primary care provider want to send me to. It was weird me telling her all my symptoms and she said her husband had the same exact symptoms. Whenever I say exact I mean exact. I wrote all of them down, read them off to her and she said yep those were it. But, he dealt with it for 4 years where mine has only been 1 year 2 months now. But he got to the point where he actually lost control of his sense of thought and was driving home one day from work and got lost. I do not want to end up like that so today I made an appointment with the private surgeon my primary care provider wants me to go to. I know now he is looking out for my best interest. This surgeon basically explained to my friend that therapy and pain management does not work on these types of issues. He said they are waste of $. Now, my questions are this:

1. If the surgeon goes in and corrects the herniated disc will he also correct the bulge disc at the same time? I have a C5-6 herniation left side into the left foraminal area resulting in left foraminal stenosis. Also C2-3 is bulged adn C6-7 is bulged. I also have straightening of the cervical lordosis with mild reversal of the cervical curvature with mild torticollis most likely due to spasms. I understand there is a chance I will have 2-3 fusions but I would rather have that than the pain and suffering I have been going through for the past year!!!

2. If I have the surgery and the surgeon wants me to stay out of work for lets say 6 months, how do I file for temporary 100% for those 6 months?

3. I guess my next question would be if the surgeon also tells me I am not allowed to go back to work how do I file for 100% P & T whenever I am only rated at 40% right now. I know the fusion will probably cause my rating to go up because it will significantly impact my ROM so I know I can file an increase but I don't seem to understand the direction or way to file for P & T if a surgeon might say I cannot work because of the fusions. I already know that he will probably not allow me to go back to work in the field I am in being a Corrections Officer because of the physical force that my duties call for and opening 400lb doors will not help either.....This surgeon told my friend that he is not allowed to go back to work so now he is medically retired. My Friend is so stubborn that he wanted to come back to work and the surgeon's office actually called our work and told them he is not allowed to come back. Good thing is the surgeon's office help send in his SSDI claim....

Thank you everybody because your inputs have helped me a lot and hopefully I will get my life back soon!!!! If this surgeon tells me I cannot go back to work, hopefully I will be going fishing soon....

[rpowell01]

Here is the thing, for 365 days ++++ I have been in pain, I now have high blood pressure because of the pain, I get chest pains because of the compressed nerve, my heart palpitates at times, I get sick on my stomach if I turn my head to the right or left too far. These are just around 20% of the issues I have with just my neck alone. I can deal with my lower back and I have dealt with muscle spasms in my neck for 15 years but this thing that started last year well I cannot handle it any longer. It is too much for me because it is not just hurting me but my family. Here is what caught my attention, seriously. Just last week my daughter asked me if she could ride her bike and ride it on the rode. I said yes. Five minutes later I heard noise in our utility room. I go in there to see what in the world was going on and see my daughter getting her bike outside. I asked her what she was doing and she said she was going ride her bike. I asked her if she knew how to ask me if she could (because of riding on the rode here is dangerous). She said she did ask me and I said YES. I told her she didn't ask me and she looked at me like I was crazy. Well my son came over and said Daddy she asked you and you said yes. I didn't remember her asking me nor did I remember answering her. Right then I had tears come out of my eyes and I told myself I had enough. This is my life and has been my life for the past year. My co-worker was telling me today that her husband would forget things right after she or anybody else told him something. You see it all came to light for me today. I am not going to put my family through this much longer. If the surgery works then great, if not, then I will have to find an alternative. But I am not going to put my family through any more. Thanks for the input....

[Hoppy]

Here's my story. About fifteen years ago there was a 2 year period I was almost flat on my back. C-4/C-5/C-6 are all bulging with nerve root compression on my ulnar nerve. My EMG was abnormal. I qualified for SSD. I could not lift a frying pan with my left arm for a year and a half. Blurred vision, dizzy (officially called giddiness) head, arm, shoulder, neck pain. Numbness in my fingers, and yes, concentration problems. The dizziness hit me every day by 10:00 AM. If I slept in the wrong position the pain was beyond words.

I begged the doctors to operate on me so I could get on with my life. One day after two years of symptoms about 4:00 PM the dizziness went away. Within about a month 95% of the pain went away. The only persistent residuals are numbness in my index finger that never goes away and my fingers on my hand tend to curl and do not straighten properly. The doctors told me a recovery would happen. I did not believe them.

I have had two exacerbations in the last ten years. One lasted six months and the other one month. During the six month exacerbation I again begged the doctors to operate on me. I have never been close to a candidate for surgery according to the neurologists.

I play golf twice a week. And can hit a driver 300 yards. I am not free from pain. However, surgery does not even enter my mind. I would love to play golf 6 days a week. I know that I can't do this. I am amazed how much pain and how long it can last and still the human body can be able to recover.

Several people I know have had similar experiences. They have called me in dire agony and totally stressed out. They never had surgery and they no longer even talk about their pain.

Edited March 28, 2011 by Hoppy

[jbasser]

My story is quite like Hoppys.

I had excruciating pain from herniations at C3 to C6. I had surgury but it was too late for me. The nerve roots were impinged.

The median nerve to t he left arm is sensory paralyzed with some motor deficits, The left shoulder us impinged and I cannot raise the left arm above it without severe pain.

Those are the better issues. My left Diaphrahm is completely paralyzed. As a result I have PPH from it.

A Neurosurgeon told me that is a nerve is pinched hard enough over a long period of time the chances of recovery is very small. He stressed 6 months or longer being the point of no return.

He was dead on. I used to fish professional Bass Tournanents years ago and still love to fish. I can only do it every other week and when I do the left arm locks up just from holding the rod. ALso a 10 lb bass could swim up the bait and hit it with a sledge hammer and I would not feel it soI have to fish and cast right handed.

The fusion went well but there is a problem after time. The disks above and below the fused site are starting to wear out so I will have to go through it again int he near future.

Hang in ther Rob.

Basser.

[rpowell01]

Well after I wrote my last reply on this, which was I think on a Monday, I was sitting up watching TV and I felt this weird feeling on my right tricep. Now I have numbness on my right tricep and some on my left, greater on right side though. Both arms are now very weak because they really feel heavy. After a few days of researching this everything comes back with a C6-7 herniation. First C5-6 now possibly C6-7. I was told I do have disc disease in my neck and back. I guess the spasms and the Cervical Kyphosis are really affecting my discs. My neck is straighter than a 2x4. John seen a photo of it and now I am very weary of that because it is dangerous to have that. I am hoping and praying this surgeon can correct this!!!