that is a horrible mismanagement of pain.if i understand you right, you have a doctor who is telling you, you need surgery and won't get back to you? maybe it would be best to find someone else. what if you develop complications after the surgery will you feel confidence in your doctor getting back to you in a timely fashion? there is a web site to look up doctors to see if there are any legal actions.http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/home/index.shtml you may find some info useful. no guarantees. just a resource.no one source is the answer. did you ever go to a pain management doctor?if your pain is not manageable with tramadol,they need to be made aware and a new plan instituted. remember these are just suggestions. and i am not giving advise as a professional.good luck to you.

It sounds to me like you need to be referred to a pain management clinic. Where pain is their specialty. A surgeon dosen't like to prescribe drugs for more than a normal recuperation time frame. a pain management Dr. isn't afraid, that's his specialty and they can spot a drug shopper in a minute where a surgeon can't and won't.And welcome tos.h. forums.
Good luck, Jim

OMG did I just say that???

Honey what are you feeling now? You said your fingers go numb so you need another surgery. Who told you this and what tests have they done? What surgery do they say you need?

Are you still having pain from your fusion? Usually numbness in your fingers is not "pain" so I am guessing there is more going on.

If you can give more details maybe someone will recognize what they have experienced and offer some advice.

Also do you have anyone who can go to docs with you or make some calls for you? You seem very distressed even here. If you get this upset with the doctors office I can understand how you may not get very good results.

Its easy to detect your anger with doctors and the way your situation has been handled.
There are so many excellent doctors with staff to support them. I have no idea what was in Greensboro,
but I do know how very important it is to research the medical staff that you plan to see.

That can make all the difference in the world

I'm a smoker and was really scared when I found out that I needed a cervical fusion because of my smoking and that my surgen might not do the surgery because of it. My circumstances was either to bad or I had a really empathedic NS one. He knew I smoked because he did my lumbar discectomy and to be honest he never once told me I had to quit before the operation. It worried me but the surgery went on. As for the fusion, I don't know yet. I'm about 7 wks post-op. Though I have no real problem with my neck. I still have issues with my shoulders and arm pain. Time will tell I guess.

There's no medical proof or justificaion on this matter granted smoking is harmful so is being overweight. I too smoke and my surgeon didn't make a big deal about it, he said if I was overweight that would make more of a difference with recovery. Believe it or not being overweight is more harmful on your organs than smoking and also the food you choose to put on your plate will kill you faster!!!
Just some FYI. Of course everyone is different.

Please keep this thread on track. Honeybiscuit said nothing about smoking in his original post. Please do not take this thread off on a tangent.

"C"