Consultation with Dr. Baumbach

[sahuaro]

With Mark's help, I was able to send my complete records to Dr. Baumbach, a neurologist in Germany, and was able to speak with him at length. Dr. Baumbach took the time to review all my records and films and to clearly explain to me what the changes in my EMG mean (permanent nerve damage from root compression), the seriousness of the change at this point in time, findings on my MRI's, prognosis and treatment options. This kind of consultation is something I have not been able to obtain from the dismissive neurologists here and means a great deal to me; obviously it will influence my decision-making in my spinal journey. The news is not great but there is enormous relief in at least knowing--and understanding--what is going on.

[fortitudine]

So glad you got a thorough review of your situation sahuaro. It's discouraging to hear of 'dismissive' doctors in the US where there's more or less a freemarket system. It certainly happens in Canada where they are overworked and don't always want to deal with the time-consuming or challenging cases. My impression is that western Europe, by and large, probably has some of the best health care in the western world.

Once you encounter a few dismissive docs, you become skeptical about the whole works, don't you? My experience with my c-spine made me leery of accepting the first opinion on anything, and now we are dealing with our son's nerve injury and I am finding that most doctors' staffs want us to believe that 'he is one of the best in the world'. Hmmmm....

[Poncho]

It is good to hear that you are getting to the bottom of your spine condition! I certainly hope you receive relief soon.

Fortitudine, I couldn't agree with you more regarding the dismissive doctor syndrome. We are a free market - but yet - it has it's down falls with "conflicts of interest". Unfortunately, it's the patients who pay whether it is monetary costs or living with less than stellar results.

Good luck S and please let us know how your progress is coming along.

[sahuaro]

Thanks, Fortitudine and Poncho for your replies.
I have posed these issues to my "medical resource," namely my physician/husband and what I have put together from his responses is that doctors here aren't paid to review records at length and that neurologists increasingly rely on MRI reports (not actually reading the films) whereas before MRI's, they were great thinkers and diagnosticians. My MRI reports do show pathology but emphasize the improvement from the initial, post-accident study--which these docs have interpreted to mean I no longer have significant spinal issues. Those are the "nice" conclusions--won't repeat the other comments from my husband, but you can imagine.
I feel fortunate that Dr. Baumbach is an "old-fashioned" neurologist in that he actually looked at the studies and films.