@rjdm1 It is definitely worth the effort to travel to Mayo for surgery. They will get all the evaluations done in a few days and not drag this out for months. I would highly recommend my surgeon, Dr. Fogelson and he is a compassionate down to earth guy and is one of Mayo's best. I agree with that, and that was what the former Mayo CEO said to me after I had sent him a letter about my experience. I thought that was pretty cool that a CEO took the time to write a personal letter to me and he thanked me. What you can do is contact Mayo and set up a temporary patient account. Check that they take your health insurance. Then to become a patient, you will need to send in copies of your imaging and records for review before you would be offered an appointment, and you can request that review from Dr. Fogelson if you wish. I chose him myself because of his education and accomplishments and because he has both neurosurgery fellowship training as well as orthopedic spine training. He teaches spine surgery labs at conferences and teaches in the Mayo neurosurgery program where he was also trained. He does both fusion and artificial discs and is a spine deformity expert. I had seen enough spine specialists and watched surgeon's presentations before I got to Mayo, that I knew he really knew his field well and was very confident, and I knew I was getting good answers to my questions. I was offered surgery without hardware. Mine was a single level fusion which made that possible. Surgeons in general seem to like using specific hardware that they have had training in from the manufacturers, and getting an answer from Dr. Fogelson that the fusion heals better with just bone instead of foreign implants was a welcome honest answer. A lot of surgeons just do fusion or prefer artificial discs, and you can get an opinion on both with him. It may take 3 months to get in to Mayo, so if you are interested, you should apply. I can tell you from my experiences, I will only go back to Dr. Fogelson at Mayo if I need further spine surgery and I highly recommend him. I was loosing the ability to hold my arms up and control them and I'm an artist. He gave that back to me, and I recovered great and his surgery took away all my pain. I am 3 years post op and doing very well. I also have thoracic outlet syndrome and am in physical therapy for that. I had to travel to Mayo in a long drive. The hotels are geared for travel with airport shuttles and shuttles running to all the medical buildings and there is a lot of info on their website with links about accommodations. Rochester is a nice small town city surrounded by peaceful farmland. They have a lot of winter snow that can hamper travel, and they have an underground "Subway" walkway to connect buildings and some of the hotels without needing to go outside in the cold. You might want to read research papers of any surgeon you are considering so you can make sure you will connect to their area of interest. I think Dr. F would be a good fit for you. Let me know if I can answer any other questions. Find the surgeon of your choice before you get into an emergency situation and end up with a surgeon you didn't choose, but need because an an urgency. Mayo has a lot of good surgeons. I also considered Dr. Bydon at the time, and he is in the news now because of success with regenerative medicine research and the recovery of a previously paralyzed spine injury patient who is now walking again.

Here are a few other links about Dr. Fogelson.
https://www.mayoclinic.org/biographies/fogelson-jeremy-l-m-d/bio-20055624
https://sharing.mayoclinic.org/2012/12/23/repaying-a-gift-scholarship-recipient-says-thanks-in-a-special-way/
https://sharing.mayoclinic.org/2017/07/26/spinal-surgery-saves-teen-swimmers-mobility/
http://www.startribune.com/in-second-term-minnesota-gov-markdayton-dealing-with-more-health-problems/361662931/
http://www.startribune.com/gov-mark-dayton-to-undergo-third-back-surgery/497015811/
https://www.mayoclinic.org/medical-professionals/neurology-neurosurgery/news/specialized-expertise-for-spinal-deformity-surgery/mac-20469055
Mayo Clinic Minute
https://newsnetwork.mayoclinic.org/discussion/mayo-clinic-minute-scoliosis-screening/