Does my house need to be painted?

      What do you expect of a surgeon when you ask him or her if your condition will require surgery?  C'mon.  Ask a painter if your house needs to be painted.  Ask a barber if you need a haircut.

     I just read an article in backbebetter http://backbebetter.blogspot.com/ by Jay Gould about his experiences in the "My back hurts" protracted crisis.  Many of our pages are littered with the same story.  To escape escalating pain we jump to be cut by surgeon who offer relief.  We all experience this.  Too true , Dave, to be good.  I don't mean the story, which is good, I mean our outcomes from surgery, which are often a disaster.

    I hate the pain scale, check out Gimpy Mumpy, "The Geek is Strong on This One" http://mumpy.typepad.com/gimpy_mumpy/ who has as good an idea as anyone on how to change the current pain scale, to a new one based on rolls of the dice. I'm all for it Gimpy!

    Recently, chronicbabe http://www.chronicbabe.com/, was good enough to cull from her emails some of our experiences with well meaning folk who stick their well meaning feet in their mouths.  Read her "Naysayer's Smackdown" of July 26, 2006.

    These 3 sites are among my favorites. 

     Folks, imagine this, which happened to me last week.  I went to yet another surgeon and after telling him what other surgical Md's had recommended, he responded, "I can't make you any promises...but if you decide to do any of those things, you'll be in a wheelchair.  I hate to tell you this, and don't pay me if you don't want to, but your life is now one of pain management.  Not me, or any other surgeon can help you now."

     Hear! Hear! The honest Doc, who isn't rolling dice with my health to prove some wacky idea.  The bloggers I've mentioned in this article, are great.  I do want to mention one more.  Disability Studies, Temple U. http://disstud.blogspot.com/ is a team effort headed up by Mike Dorn (PhD.) who is a great guy and runs a top shelf, professional website that is kind of like the New York Times of Disabled people, events and news. God bless, Colin

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Comments

[dave gershner]

Such an illuminating article, right on target. I've talked and worked with so many people thru the years determined to try exercise, yoga, zero-gravity recliners and Tempur-Pedic mattresses before even considering surgery.
There are other alternatives, even the medical ones.
Thanks for being right on the mark again.

[Wanda]

I've had five lumbar surgeries. Each time the doctor(s) involved told me why I needed the surgery along with the pros and cons. I was never promised anything and was told that things could go wrong. It's hard to work around the spine.
Each surgery did just what I was told it would do. I'm not a case of Failed Back Syndrome.However, no one ever mentioned the possibility of arachnoiditis. In fact I had the first surgeries under spinal anesthesia. I was told it is safer. It isn't. After my final surgery the doctor told me I have arachnoiditis and there was nothing to be done except pain management. I'm thankful for his honesty. It made me free to learn to live with this disease instead of looking all over to find a fix.
Keep up the good work.
Wanda