[Cheryl]

I went to the doctors today to follow up on the cervical facet injections that didn’t work. He told me “I don’t think there is anything I can do for you now, I don’t know what to tell you”. He offered me pain management only. He will not do a discogram. Is that normal not to do a discogram next? He said the results of cervical discograms are not conclusive therefore not worth the risk. I explained that I am at a pain level of 7 all day, I haven't worked in 7 months and I can barely care for my children at the end of the day due to neck pain. I understand the ambiguous results I went through all this with my low back. This ended up so ugly.

He actually raised his voice at me and I was in tears as he told me that the only option was fusion but it only works in 48% of the patients at c5-c6, there is a 12% chance of swallowing problems and 1or 2 in 1000 is quadripalegic. I asked if the quadripalegics are at his practice and he said no but they are in Charlotte and are in lawsuits.

I asked about disk replacement and he said he'd go through the appeals process but that United Healthcare isn't paying for it. Which of course I know all that. And I wouldn't let him touch me anyway at this point.

The MRI only shows mild degeneration which I guess is his hesitation but given my history wouldn't that be the next step?