[steve55]

Thanks CP. Yea, it's a tough decision to sit and wait it out hoping your body somehow corrects itself or to go under the knife again. That is great news about your doctor's story. I've heard many stories like that and those stories is what keeps us going sometimes. Hope makes life with a little easier to deal with. And there is hope that the technology will get better yet.

Myself, I feel very confident that what I have is the same exact thing I had last time. I would bet big $$$ that my discogram will show what the MRI missed, a trashed disc that is incapable of holding the dye. There is no way I can hurt this much yet have a clean MRI and CT . In fact, my previous MRI 's never showed I had tears and leakage either. It wasn't till the discogram that we saw how bad the discs were. Dr b said my cervical discs were in horrible shape and couldn't hold any dye at all. I've searched the net hours on end and of the few thoracic surgery cases I could find, most did well. I'm willing to go for it. My life is already the shits now, it won't be much different if something doesn't go as well as planned, well, unless I got paralyzed I guess.

I'm going to try all the treatments they throw my way for now, meds to injections etc, and then get opinions from dr b, dr regan, and dr bitan. In the end I feel dr regan would be my man. I'm thoroughly impressed with his skills and reputation. I really liked that he did a late night phone consultation with me and it was no charge (if I recall correctly ) but that was thanks to mark's connection with him. And just like last time, I predict I'll be fixed once they get that bad disc out. I've seen tons of stories of people who are fused at many levels, some almost the entire back, and most of them have little to no pain. But I like mark's advice. He said "take your time, don't rush these things". Im really appreciative to have mark's services available to me. And countless times, mark got through the red tape direct to the top docs and can help discuss my case with them and then mark can lay out everything in simple laymen's terms. I can't believe how often I read posts that accuse mark of being like some kind of charlatan or that he charges too much to escort people to Germany. His services and input are invaluable and people need an experienced spine person to help them through. It makes a big difference! Mark has spent hours by phone with me during my previous surgeries, half of it at no charge, and his input gave me so much peace of mind. It's nice to have a knowledgeable and caring person who knows what you are going through and whi also has connections when needed. And of course he should charge for what ge does, how else can he do it and still make a living? Well, I'm getting off track here but I've read some things at other boards that are flat out wrong and it just amazes me. Why do certain people have to trash someone who truly "cares" about helping people.