I'm a nuclear mechanical engineer working for the Navy, I have a wife and a little girl. I've always been very physically active and before the fall and one of the most motivated people you'd ever met. I approached Yale directly after I exhausted all the medical help in my area and have become completely fed up with the amount of red tape and New England's cold shoulder of health CARE.

Dr Dhanasopon is the thoracic surgeon at Yale, and I have setup an appointment with a Trauma Surgeon for tomorrow at Yale to try and convince him that the imaging is spot on and that I need surgical intervention to repair those muscles. The surgeon who did my cholecystectomy stated that I would need to see a Orthopedic Trauma Surgeon; but, I haven't been able to get my hands on anything. I'm really grasping at straws now.

Dhanasopon has not mentioned any possible causes for the pain at my back ribs and neither has the pain management doctor he referred me to at Backus Outpatient (Dr Kapor). Physical therapy has helped the herniation's and bulging disk in my back; but, severely aggravated my throat/esophagus nerves, chest and diaphragm. The muscle trauma has also become more defined. After a year and a half of this Trauma, I'm very aware of the full gamut of cause and effect.

My issue has not been clinically identified by any radiologist and no specialty I've seen has the balls to read the MRI imaging for themselves. I've challenged the reporting multiple times because I know that the abnormalities are physical, not an error in the imaging. For me, the images aren't just visual... I can feel it (like a knife). There is nowhere else to look, nothing else to question.

@dave06351, I can't imagine the frustration you are feeling when you know what is wrong with you and you can't get the diagnosis to help move you forward. I am also no stranger to chronic pain and muscle/skeletal issues. Like you, I am a very physically active person despite my illness and joint damage and surgeries. I was born with Hemophilia, a rare genetic bleeding disorder that prevents my blood from clotting on its own. As a result, I had a lot of internal injuries to my lower joints and ended up with end-stage arthritis in both ankles and my right knee by the time I was in my mid-teens. I now have had a total knee replacement, a left ankle fusion and will still need a right ankle fusion as well. I am currently still in a sling as I just had my torn rotator cuff fixed. I loved physical sports but had to quit at an early age. I picked up weight-lifting to satisfy my love for being active and have had to recently back off on that as well. I share this to at least show that I understand the feeling of having your activity level taken from you despite your drive to be active. It's hard to put in to words sometimes, isn't it?

@dave06351, how did your appointment go with Dr. Dhanasopon go? Would you also be interested in speaking with your providers to get a possible referral to Mayo Clinic? I can't promise an appointment, but a physician referral is a good start.