Hi, @leigho55 - good to hear from you. Sounds like you were a real advocate for your own health and getting to an appropriate diagnosis, though it took some time and struggle.

How is your pain level currently?

I hope you got three years of back pay! In my area all the doctors are in a tight circle or at least it seems this way. We only have Tennova and Covenant after all the different hospitals have merged, and the Southeast is the worst place to live for healthcare.

After having yet another lumbar surgery, the neurosurgeon said I have arachnoiditis. He was looking at the same myelogram that I took before the surgery was done. A pain pump was put in by my PM doctor and a seroma formed two weeks later. I had asked three or four doctors to do new MR imaging before the pump was put in, but the only one who ordered it was a neurologist whose office failed to order the test with neurography as the doctor had said. My PM doctor had rushed up the appmt. to put the pain pump in before the end of the year, because my insurance was changing to Blue Cross, which he did not accept. I didn't know that he was sending me to Chattanooga for another doctor to put the pump in, who did accept Blue Cross. I didn't want to cancel at the last minute, but if I had cancelled I wouldn't be sitting here with a pain pump that doesn't control the pain, and on top of that there is, now, too much artifact from the pain pump, hip implant, and surgeries to see what the problem is. Do you know, or does anyone know, if my insurance company will remove the pain pump if the PM doctor tells them it doesn't help and that I need imaging to find out what is causing the seroma and all the pain? It is possible that my pain could be coming from Tarlov cysts.

I hope you are feeling better. Thank you.