@wa34937 I'm just a patient and volunteer, so I don't know what the criteria is for patient selection in different departments, but I can tell you about how I got into Mayo as a patient. Connect is a patient forum and is not staffed by Mayo doctors, so the best we can do is share our own experiences. I hear from time to time that getting an appointment in neurology is difficult because there are so many people seeking those appointments with neuropathy. Sometimes neuropathy cannot be cured if something has caused permanent nerve damage.

My case was that I had spinal cord compression in my neck and it was causing pain all over my body, in my arms and legs which confused all the non-Mayo surgeons I saw locally. I tried for 2 years to get help and no surgeon would help me even though all of them could read the MRI and see my compressed spinal cord. I was always dismissed because it looked like I must have other big problems with my all over pain, and I had had some dizziness and vertigo and that can be a symptom of something serious with the brain.

In my case, vertigo was caused by muscle spasms moving my vertebrae around when I had no space left around my spinal cord. Right after surgeon #5 dismissed me, I looked at a profile for a Mayo surgeon and read his papers. One paper talked about leg pain from cervical spinal cord compression and also mentioned "funicular pain" so I figured this doctor would understand the pain I had. When I looked up "funicular pain", I found medical cases similar to mine and the indicator of funicular pain was that an epidural steroid spine injection would temporarily relieve the pain everywhere. That had been my experience, and surgeon #5 didn't pay attention to the results of that injection which was done as a diagnostic test. Perhaps it was meant to screen me out as a patent, and I think the doctor thought I would still have leg pains after the injection which would indicate it was a separate problem from the cervical spine problem, but when that didn't happen he ignored the findings.

So with this medical literature in hand, I wrote a letter to the Mayo surgeon and explained my symptoms and the whiplash that happened 20 years earlier, and that 5 local surgeons had turned me down over 2 years. My symptoms at that time included loosing the coordination of my arms and I am an artist, so that was a big problem to me. I sent my imaging, letter, and the medical literature in with my request. To do this, you must set up a temporary account and arrange to send in the imaging CDs by mail. I was told it would be about a 3 month wait to be seen in neurosurgery, but because of a cancellatoin, I got an appointment a month later and had to quickly get hotel reservations. I was offered surgery right away. I had a first day of testing, met the surgeon the second day, and I had to return for an MRI of the entire spine a couple days later.

What I think helped me get into Mayo was that no local surgeon would help me because of my unusual symptoms, and that I had been advocating for myself and trying to get treatment for 2 years. I also had done extensive physical therapy for my spine and for thoracic outlet syndrome prior to being seen at Mayo, and I had imaging and X-rays done during this time that supported my attempt in getting surgery for my condition. If I had been successful in getting interest from a local surgeon, I don't know if that would have changed my luck in getting into Mayo for another opinion.

Because I was an established patient and I had a good relationship with my Mayo neurosurgeon, I contacted him last year when I broke my ankle because I wanted a recommendation for a good surgeon to fix my ankle, and my neurosurgeon responded right away, and then the Mayo orthopedic trauma surgeon's PA contacted me an hour later and set up a first appointment and a surgery date. I sent in some screen shots of my X rays by e mail, and at that time, I had an external cage on my ankle to stabilize it for a few weeks while waiting for some of the swelling to calm down. My word of mouth and the recommendation from my spine surgeon were enough to warrant an appointment.

Hi Wa34937, the criteria for appointments at Mayo Clinic are complex and include many variables. Mayo Clinic has more requests for appointments than available openings. Appointments at Mayo Clinic are prioritized on the basis of medical need. Availability depends on the nature and urgency of the problem and Mayo Clinic's ability to help (as determined by a Mayo Clinic doctor). The complexity of the medical condition and, for less complex conditions, the availability of care closer to home are also factors.