What specialist would you recommend?

Hi all! I am a 55 year old C7,8 incomplete quadriplegic for many years. I have central cord syndrome, meaning my arms are more affected by paralysis and numbness than my legs. I am ambulatory.

Because of spasticity and neck pain I had a Medtronic intrathecal catheter placed for baclofen (a muscle relaxant) and dilaudid treatment. Over the course of a few months I began having new progressive back pain. The chronic pain doctors who managed the pump simply increased my dilaudid dose repeatedly. After much frustration and insistence of a work up they did plain X-rays which were normal.

When it came time to change the battery, my pain was considerably worse, and refractory to both high doses of dilaudid and baclofen and oral meds such as NSAIDS. I was fed up with the pain doctors and had the pump removed, vowing never to return to a chronic pain clinic.

A year or so later, a MRI showed arachnoiditis, which I presume is a consequence of the pump and new muscle atrophy of my buttocks muscles and low back paravertebral muscles (? Due to arachnoiditis)

I am unable to sit comfortably for more than 10 minutes and unable to sit at all for more than 45 minutes.

2 spine surgeons have told me “it’s not a surgical problem “ (duh). I have been through 3 rounds of physical therapy without improvement. My neurologist sympathized but had nothing revolutionary to add.

I think it would be very helpful to know if my inability to sit is a result of the arachnoiditis or the muscle atrophy, but no doctor to date has been able to answer this.

Does anyone have any recommendations about what kind of specialist I should see to get this figured out?