@hodinator Good morning, Robert. You have a great mindset for healing. Patients have real power if they believe that they will have a good outcome. Being a good patient goes a long way to build a relationship with the surgeon, and I think that is essential. Your mind set for managing pain is great. I had to do that also and calm my emotions about it in order to stay in control. All my life, I had feared pain, and the fear of it makes it worse and more powerful. You don't have to give power to your pain, and you can become your own coach. I had been practicing deep breathing to music to lower my blood pressure along with visualization of beautiful images, so I had a method to be able to lower pain a bit, and prevent escalating it with fear.

I had been dismissed by 5 surgeons prior to coming to Mayo who didn't understand that the pain I had all over my body was being caused by spinal cord compression, and none would help me. I was reading the published literature of surgeons I was interested in, and when I found a paper talking about leg pain being caused by cervical spinal cord compression co-authored by a Mayo surgeon, I looked up a term in that paper and found case reports like mine for something called "funicular pain". This is what I thought had confused a lot of surgeons, so I wrote to this surgeon at Mayo and asked to be his patient.

You're right. My experience as a Mayo spine surgery patient is the reason I am here on Connect, and I was asked to be a mentor. I chose my surgeon at Mayo because I knew he would understand my symptoms because his name was on medical literature that discussed similar symptoms. There is a little bit more to my story because I am an artist, and I was loosing my ability to hold my arms up to be able to work on my paintings. When we met, I asked Dr. Jeremy Fogelson if I could do some sketches of him to help calm my fears because I like things I paint, and I needed to like him so I could place my trust in him. He said yes, and posed for a couple pictures, and he offered to help me.

Here is the story.
https://newsnetwork.mayoclinic.org/discussion/using-the-art-of-medicine-to-overcome-fear-of-surgery/
The other surgeon I was considering was Dr. Bydon. He is doing research on regeneration after spinal cord trauma and has had some success with that. Other patients tell me that he is also excellent.
https://www.mayoclinic.org/biographies/bydon-mohamad-m-d/bio-20147826
I recommend Dr. Fogelson a lot, and his bio speaks volumes about his accomplishments, and he is very personable and kind. He has praised me for being here on Connect to help patients.
https://www.mayoclinic.org/biographies/fogelson-jeremy-l-m-d/bio-20055624