I am certainly glad that I started my post (biography, diary, story, ???) under the "General Discussion > The Big File" category of the board, as I am feeling less and less optimistic that this chronicle of events will ever actually end!
I had my follow-up appointment with Dr. Yue the first week of May to review my most recent MRI and discuss what surgical options may be available for me to address spine issues. Although a very thorough account of this visit may more clearly explain my great frustration, I don't have the patience to try and type it nor would I want to put anyone through reading it all! In short, due to some confusion created by a P.A. who initially spoke with me at the start of this appointment - Dr Yue finally came in and looked at the MRI images, then stated who wonderful they were and that there was no reason I would be unable to do anything - run, jump, climb, and on and on and on. I stared blankly in a state of shock, unable to think or speak! My wife took the much more direct approach almost shouting
, "What!? Are you kidding us? Why were we working so hard to get a bi-level ADR surgery approved for you to perform if there is nothing wrong?"
Only then did Dr. Yue seem to notice it may have been a decent idea to peek into my very large file / medical chart before he walked in! He quickly back-peddled trying to explain that he was only referring to the fact that the MRI shows no cause for my leg pain! Based on whatever his P.A. said or wrote, he thought that was the purpose of the visit! He then stated that due to my past discogram with concordant pain indicating my L4/5 and L5/S1 were my pain generators that we should line up a CT scan and try to move forward with getting the bi-level ADR or a hybrid procedure done! He added that I should get tested for Lyme disease as well, as my leg pain could somehow be related to an issue like that.
For me, this appointment couldn't have gone much worse. I really needed to confidently believe that a surgical intervention for my problems was the "right" thing to do, and that I had a surgeon who was also confident in that fact. Instead, I feel like he is simply going along with what I (we) are asking for.
I suppose I need to pull myself together (once more), go ahead with the CT scan, and seek out some additional surgeons for their opinions........