Doctors and their lack of empathy

well had my surgeon visit.

he disagrees with the hip specialist I saw last week and is referring me to another surgeon (wait for it) for a hip replacement.

apparently, arthritis in the joint is severe enough to replace the hip and repair the tear and cyst which is now 60mm up from 38mm 2 weeks ago.

so I ring the new surgeon and the earliest I can see him is the 16th September so i sit in pain for another 3 months.

then after that is done we need to have the last of the lumbar spine fused

How much are we supposed to have to endure?

And the clincher is I will no doubt ably need further spine work within the next 2 years.

so all I have to do now is make a decision on whether I want to put myself through this or is it time to call it quits

Hi there kayakfisho,

I imagine by now you have had your surgeon's appointment, how did it go?

There is so much to consider with this surgery, if you choose to go ahead with it?

I do not know you or pretend to do so, and or if your back condition came about from an accident, injury, playing sports and or like in my case I was born with my low back condition.

My back guy is/was a top Neurosurgeon opposed to a spinal surgeon only. His understanding of his patients body function, movement and nerve pain is exceptional. Simply, when a great majority of other surgeons were asked who would they want to operate on their backs, his name topped the list.

The subtle point I am trying to make here is, I did my research and visited many surgeons before I made my choice. From the sounds of it you require someone in your corner to weigh up the pros/cons of each surgeon's recommendations.

RE: your pain control drugs + anti depressants: From your posts, your mental health is not in a good place on your current regime of medications. This tells me, you might benifet from a change?

My point is opioid drugs are classed as 'Full Agonists'. There are other options for pain control and they are referred to as 'Partial Agonists'. Without getting into the weeds a partial agonist might be an option worth talking about to your medical team.

You might be in a position where your pain management people could be able to make the proper applications to prescribe a partial agonist given your condition and chronic pain history.

What works for one might not work for another. But I feel it is an option and it is out there in the world of medication pain control.

I want to leave you with the words from the opening paragraph of "Unweaving the Rainbow"

We are going to die, and that makes us the lucky ones. Most people are never going to die because they are never going to be born. The potential people who could have have been here in my place but who will in fact never see the light of day outnumber the sand grains of Arabia. Certainly those unborn ghosts include greater poets than Keats, scientists greater than Newton. We know this because the set of possible people allowed by our DNA so massively exceeds the set of actual people. In the teeth of these stupefying odds it is you and I, in our ordinariness, that are here.'

- Richard Dawkins.

Do not let them beat you!

Regards,