@ryaskin I wish it had been that easy. I had never considered I would see surgeons who didn't want me as a patient. It was a game of "Stump the Doctor" and most were thinking about what differential diagnosis they could assign to my case. They would not believe me when I said I could turn my head and cause leg pain or that it stopped when I turned back to forward. I found the correct diagnosis in medical literature right after being dismissed for the 5th time and after having spent 6 months doing everything asked of me and trying to outsmart the surgical nurse who was trying to send me away and refusing to schedule appointments. The surgeon wasn't going to listen to me, and none of my other doctors at the same medical center would challenge his opinion by asking him to read the literature that suggested what he had missed. That was when I asked for an appointment at Mayo and I put the medical literature on the table and asked if my case was like this one.

I spent 2 years trying to get surgical help before I succeeded. I thought that doctors would want to help me, but their concern for themselves and saving their reputation from an imagined problem was far greater because they didn't want to risk lowering their ratings of successful surgeries by taking a chance on me. They all could read the imaging and see the disc and bone spurs pressing into my spinal cord. They are under a lot of pressure to get it right and do no harm, so it is just easier to back out altogether.

I was in physical therapy for thoracic outlet syndrome which affects the neck and shoulders during which time my progress plateaued and the leg pain with head turning began. My therapist recommended a spine consult and because I was afraid, I didn't rush to see a surgeon. A year later, I was ready to face this and began trying to get help. Having spine surgery at Mayo was a good 3 years after the first spine symptom. I had kept notes to chart my symptoms as they worsened and I drew pain maps to show the doctors at my appointments. That actually backfired because it just scared them away when they couldn't explain why.

During those 2 years, my PT did a lot to try to help with realigning my spine and stretching out tight fascial restrictions that were pulling and twisting my vertebrae. I had developed an uneven gait and walked with a bit of a limp if my spine was out of alignment, and when she realigned it, I could walk normally again. She also used a Dolphin neurostimulator to interfere with pain signals on the nerve roots in my neck. I was getting pain relief from that for about a week. My spine problem was more complicated because the the TOS causing extra pressure on one side of my neck and escalating the symptoms.

When I got to Mayo, I was offered surgery at the first appointment. The surgeon believed me, and there were no hoops that I had to jump through to try to get help. That was a big relief. Over time, my fear of having surgery was replaced by the fear of what I would loose if I didn't have surgery. That was really my choice. I would have done it much sooner, but I couldn't find the right doctor locally and I had to seek a new opinion elsewhere. I have learned that it is good to consult several surgeons until you find one you can trust and who you think has the right solution for your issues. Their opinions vary a lot and the procedures and brands of spine implants and hardware varies a lot. That factors into your choice when you decide on surgery. In all that time of searching, I was reading medical literature and learning a lot about spine surgery. I decided on surgery without hardware and I stayed in a neck brace until fused which was about 3 months.

Here is my Mayo story.
https://newsnetwork.mayoclinic.org/discussion/using-the-art-of-medicine-to-overcome-fear-of-surgery/