spine doctors/neurosurgeon recommendations

At the bottom of these pages is a box that says Make An Appointment. I have used it and it is an easy system to use. Good luck to you.

@cookie07
I understand how upsetting it is to be ignored by a surgeon. Sometimes, that may be a blessing in disguise when you find a better surgeon who agrees to help. That happened to me. After being turned down 5 times by local surgeons, I turned to Mayo to Jeremy Fogelson. He helped me and I had an excellent outcome from a cervical fusion.

You are not too old for surgery in your 60s. For scoliosis, you need a deformity expert who has done a lot of scoliosis surgery cases. What matters is other health issues you may have or perhaps having bone quality issues with osteoporosis or if you smoke. Smoking lowers the body's oxygen levels which affects healing after surgery. Spine instrumentation relies on screwing hardware onto the spine, and some implants have spaces where new bone may grow through them to anchor it to the spine.

Surgeons are not all equally gifted, and a complex instrumented surgery needs a real expert. Jeremy Fogelson is one of the best at Mayo; he's a deformity neurosurgeon expert also with orthopedic spine deformity fellowship training. It is definitely worth the effort to travel to Mayo to see him. Rochester has many hotel accommodations and a Mayo has a free Concierge service that can help you find a hotel.

First, you need to find out if Mayo accepts your health insurance. I recommend calling them. Here is the webpage with billing information.
https://www.mayoclinic.org/billing-insurance
If you insurance is accepted, you may begin a request for an appointment with this link.
http://mayocl.in/1mtmR63
Someone at Mayo will call you back to setup an account and coordinate receiving your medical records and copies of imaging. The imaging is the most important and will be review by a doctor at Mayo. When you speak with a coordinator, you can request it be sent to Dr. Fogelson for review. There is no charge to do this to apply for an appointment. Also write a letter to send that describes your symptoms and the history of your condition.

Here is information on Dr. Fogelson
https://www.mayoclinic.org/biographies/fogelson-jeremy-l-m-d/bio-20055624
https://medprofvideos.mayoclinic.org/videos/adult-scoliosis-treatment-options-at-mayo-clinic
He is an excellent surgeon and very caring and compassionate with patients. When you already have enough to worry about, it helps to have a surgeon who is kind. If you have questions, I will try to help any way that I can.

@cookie07
You are young and many orthopedic spine surgeons do procedures on people into their 70s and 80s so whoever is telling you that you are too old are not good doctors/surgeons. You do need to find other surgeons for 2nd, 3rd and 4th opinions.

What type of health insurance coverage do you have? Did you call your insurance company for referrals to surgeons who are highly rated and accept your coverage? What part of WV are you in?

It would be good to take a family member or friend with you to help you advocate for your health and ask questions/get answers.

Have you read your lumbar MRI report in detail? What does the radiologist call out as impressions?

@cookie07

1. https://www.healthgrades.com/spine-surgery-directory/wv-west-virginia
2. https://www.medifind.com/specialty/orthopedics/US/WV
3. https://orthopedic.io/spine-surgeon/wv/
4. https://wvumedicine.org/ruby-memorial-hospital/services/wvu-specialty-clinics/spine-neck-and-back/

Jennifer,
I am in tears and am so grateful to you for all of this information. No one has ever helped like this. It does give me some hope. I am going to start working on this information. You have opened some doors that I never had before. Thank you. If I have further questions may I contact you through this post again? Again, thank you.

@cookie07 Absolutely, Cookie. I'll help any way that I can. To make sure that I don't miss your posts, would you type my handle @jenniferhunter at the beginning of the post? That will send me an e mail, and I can easily find that under the notifications where the bell icon is at the top. I know how hard this is, and your situation is a lot more complex than what I was going through, and it doesn't need to be that way. I'm glad that you didn't give up and reached out here instead. That's why I help; because I can. I didn't have anyone guiding me, and I had to rely on my knowledge and researching medical papers as well as embracing the process I was going through in facing my fears and consulting surgeons who were not interested in me. That did help in overcoming my fears because I learned how to face the uncertainty that walked through the door in a lab cat, and later I found what they had missed in literature with a case like mine.

I do hope you can see Dr. Fogelson. I have so much gratitude for him. He did more for me too. In 2020, I had a serious ankle fracture, and I asked him for a recommendation for a surgeon. He responded and I had communication right away from the staff of an orthopedic trauma specialty surgeon at Mayo, then a phone call within an hour with an appointment scheduled a few days later for me for ankle surgery. I've had a good recovery from that too.

Words could express how I felt after my spine surgery, and I set a goal in my recovery to get back the coordination in my arms. What I wanted to do more than anything was to paint a portrait of him as a gift, and I did. It was a Sharing Mayo Clinic Story. You can see it in this post https://connect.mayoclinic.org/comment/221703/

This post will take you to a video link for a time lapse of the creation of the portrait. It's got beautiful music, and I think you'll enjoy it. It relaxes me when I watch it.
https://connect.mayoclinic.org/comment/222044/
Jennifer

Responding to "cookie".
Go to an Orthopedic doctor and do not have fear of a possible "Fusion".
I am almost 80 years old - I had a fusion 30 years ago and again (next vertebra higher)
5 weeks ago. FUSED L5 /L4 /L3 - and I am very happy.
It does take time to "heal" and some major discomfort, but I can walk again.
Stay possitive - peterpaul

Thank you so much. This is so positive and helpful! I wish you successful and speedy recovery!