@fdchik22 Yes, absolutely. Dr. Fogelson is one of Mayo's best according to the former CEO who wrote back to me about him after he got my letter. He is excellent. He did his neurosurgrey training at Mayo, and he teaches there too, and everything in his background shows his excellence in academics and that he has been recognized in his field. His surgery was so good that he didn't need to place a drain in my neck, and I woke up with all the pain gone except for what is caused by the surgical path. I also had surgery without hardware for one level and I have only a bone graft and a lot of surgeons probably wouldn't allow that, so he had to trust me to follow directions. The incision was closed in layers with help from doctors in the neuro program and was nice and neat, nothing was glued together there like I see on so many other patient online posts. I stayed in a neck brace until fused. He gave me my life back. I had lost about half my shoulder and arm muscle to atrophy before surgery, and most has come back. I'm trying not to need a spine surgeon again, but if I do, it will only be Dr. Fogelson at Mayo. I've seen 5 spine surgeons at other places and I wouldn't trust most of them. Dr. Fogelson told me he would be my doctor as long as I need him. He is also very personable, and a down to earth nice guy. It doesn't cost anything to ask him to review your imaging, and if he offers you an appointment, you can decide. My experience of everyone at Mayo exceeded my expectations, and I didn't know medicine could be like that where doctors consult each other in an interdisciplinary team approach. I also have thoracic outlet syndrome which muddies the waters a bit causing symptoms that can overlap with spine caused symptoms, and that was evaluated by another doctor and lab there, and that doctor called Dr. Fogelson to discuss it while I was at my neurosurgery consult. I say go for it. If I had to do this over, I would go to Mayo first, and skip the 5 surgeons who didn't want to help me.

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