Shebo i wanted to give you some hope. I suffered from some horrible thoracic pain for few years as it increased in intensity and frequency. My doc did listen and thank me for my patience when trying to figure it all out. Well one day i brought him an article on thoracic discography and so he went with it. It showed 2 extremely painful discs (they had bulges, herniations whatever you want to call them alone with tears) the discography brought tears to my eyes and i rated the first one a 20 our of 10. The rest were kind of painful, some of them, but compared to the first one i only rated them like a 5. I was sent to DrRegan after my doc decided the day before surgery to not try it when Regan was right here in our area. So a few months later i had the VATS procedure to remove the 2 painful discs. Almost a year later i had developed a severe kyphosis and needed the thoracic surgery to straighten my back., Well i have no more pain in that area. DrRegan's surgery took away the horrible pain. My doc when doing the kyphosis surgery and osteotomy's did lamenectomy's down my whole thoracic spine also so i hope i am set in that area.
Sorry this was so long. I was once in your situation, but i was probably weaker in dealing with the pain and would do anything with the chance of getting me back to the dusty trails.
hoping to give you some hope
judy