@cookiepic Thank you so much for your kind words. The painting was a gift from my heart because of how much it meant to me to regain the ability to do paintings again, and it was the mountain I needed to climb in my recovery. My surgeon was very appreciative and it was fun to see him get excited about the painting.

If you are seeking a compassionate doctor, you will find a lot of them at Mayo in many specialties. Honestly, everyone who saw me at Mayo was kind and compassionate, and not in a hurry. It makes you feel like they are happy to see you as a person, and not just an appointment to finish. That really is what sets them apart from other places, and you will find a multidisciplinary team all focused on putting the needs of the patient first and figuring out if other health issues may be influencing the current problem. That is what made Mayo what it is today and a standard of excellence in research. When I broke my ankle, all I had to do was ask my Mayo spine surgeon, and he found a great orthopedic surgeon for me, and they reached out to me the same day and I had an appointment scheduled in a couple days for surgery. At that time, I had an external cage attached to my leg and foot to stabilize it for a couple weeks, and needed a surgeon to put the bones back together.

I had been seen by 5 other spine surgeons before I came to Mayo, and all of them missed understanding the symptoms related to the diagnosis. All of them ignored crucial clues. One was very dismissive, another was arrogant and running out of the room to avoid answering questions. I wasted 2 years chasing surgeons who wouldn't help me and all the while the compression of my spinal cord was getting worse. All of them could see that on the imaging, but they didn't understand my case and didn't want to get involved. I wish I had come to Mayo first, and I'm glad that the others refused me because I had a compassionate gifted surgeon at Mayo in Rochester. I also had a choice at Mayo that the others would not have considered which was a single level fusion without hardware, just a bone graft. That was the right choice for me, and I wanted to avoid the possibility of immune responses to surgical hardware. I stayed in a neck brace 3 months while it healed.

You certainly could get another opinion at Mayo about your spine. Surgery is a big step, and getting multiple opinions is good because you learn a lot and can compare and make an educated choice in your care.

If you want to request an appointment at any of the Mayo campuses, you may user this link. http://mayocl.in/1mtmR63 .

Also at Mayo, there is no financial incentive for doing surgery and the doctor is paid a salary which is the same; surgery or not. Doctors at Mayo are employees, not owners and decisions are made without a financial bias of profitability for the surgeon. Would you consider seeking another opinion for your spine at one of the Mayo campuses?