Oh Kath,
I am so sorry you are in pain. Unfortunately I am not in your area so I can not offer you a recommendation for a doctor. Nor can I offer any medical advice. What I can say is. "I'm with you girlfriend." If one more doctor says to me, "Sometimes a small amount of people just have these big surgeries and have horrendous amounts of pain afterwards." I'm going to SCREAM!

Keep at it! Do not give up. In my opinion FBSS is just a blanket statement that means they don't know what else to do. Keep searching until you find someone that does. Unfortunatly, all to often our doctors seem to forget that we have more than one level in our back. They get their eyes fixated on the one level worked on and can't imagine that our pain could be coming from somewhere else.

My only advice as you go from here, doctors feel they need to protect each other. No matter who you see, whether your original surgeon or someone new, go in with the attitude that says "hey, I had surgery it was fine, I'm good with it. Now I have this new problem..." Take them off the defense right away! Otherwise, my experience is, you get nowhere fast.

Keep us posted hopefully someone will send you a recommendation. Can you ask your PCP for one or one of your other doctors?

I was faced with somewhat the same thing but I had not fused.

I am not in your area but what I ended up doing was locating a big teaching hospital that had a division that worked on spine patients only. The doctor that I found and had revision surgery done with is not afraid of failed back surgery patients or tough revision surgery problems. He was not arrogant either and didn't have the "I'm God" type personality. I think these doctors have a different mindset and are not money hungry which I term most nuero/spinal doctors as being. I think their insurance is paid for by the hospital and they are paid a somewhat normal salary. These doctors like to teach and write papers and give lectures. They are up on whats current in their field.

Just my experience after having had 3 operations done by private pratice doctors.

David

Kathy are you sure you want to go directly to a surgeon? My surgeon only does surgery. He would not see me for what you describe because once the surgery is over he is done. If something new comes up I would have to see a neurologist or orthopedist.

I'm wondering if you could ask your Primary Care doctor for a referral to someone whom he/she respects.

My opinion is always that if you continue struggling and your doctor has given up on being able to help you, go elsewhere. There comes a point of acceptance, but I that point is different for each of us. I know I'm not willing to give up yet. I agree that sometimes FBSS is a catchall diagnosis when the doctor doesn't know what to do.

In my area the "expert" to diagnose back issues is a neurosurgeon. Some of the other doctors can do the initial workup, but if there is a difficult case, a referral to the NS is common, even if surgery is not wanted. Often people start with a physiatrist here. It appears that each geographic area handles spine issues differently. I would suggest a large facility that specializes only in spine issues.

Have you checked the "find a doctor" part of this site? I don't know whether SH endorses these doctors, but this would be a place to start.

I have found the Spine Health directory to be incomplete so I am guessing that these are only the doctors who have signed up. I may be wrong in my guess but I know the list is not complete.

A better source is probably the yellow pages, either paper or internet. Or a local hospital or medical society.

Of course the best way to find a doctor is to find a satisfied patient. I've been amazed at how many people I know that had back problems and I never knew. So open your mouth and see what happens.

The only Dr's on the SH directory are Dr's that have signed up and PAID SH to be included on the site.

I used an Orthopedic Spine Surgeon with good success. My prior OSS was one my primary care recommended and while he's a good surgeon I wasn't 100% happy so an acquaintance recommended my current OSS and I'm 100% pleased thus far with his care, skill, etc.