“Surgeon” Visit

 

Well I finally saw a neurosurgeon yesterday, if one can call him that, and what a wasted effort that was!  The man should not even have an M.D. license.  I left his office in tears.

My pain management doctor sent me over there because I am having terrible pain in my back and arm.  An MRI showed three herniated thoracic discs.  She did not want to try an epidural because I had such a bad reaction (seizures) to the Medrol I was given, so she is afraid to give me any more steroids.

The “surgeon”, and I call him that very loosely, took a look at my MRI.  He tersely said that the only thing he could do is remove a disc, but it might not work and might leave me paralyzed from the neck down or just paralyzed on the left side.  I asked what are the chances of that, and he said 20% of being paralyzed from the neck down.  I asked him what are the chances of just the left side (like I would really try the surgery after hearing the first answer anyway!) and he said “Why are you asking so many questions?  Don’t you trust me?”  I told him of course I trusted him (ok, I lied to him about that), he has done surgery on me before (failed surgery, I might add) but that I needed some facts to base a decision on.  He said I don’t need to make a decision, he is the doctor.

I won’t bore you with the whole conversation, but at one point I finally asked him what he would advise if it were his daughter sitting before him.  I can’t live with the pain, not even with medication, what options do I have?

He actually told me that I ask too many questions and that he cannot work with a patient like that, and did not want to be my doctor anymore!  Even though I was in tears, I remembered to ask for my co-pay check back on the way out of the office, because I am not paying to be treated like that.

I went back to my other doctor, and she said she will refer me somewhere else, and will not refer any more patients to this “doctor”.

In case anyone is interested, this guy’s name is Dr. Yonas Zegeye.  He practices out of several offices in South Florida and a surgery center in West Palm Beach.  Don’t ever go him, EVER!  If you are referred to him, run fast in the other direction.  He has a God complex so big that you could fit the entire world inside of it and still have room.

So what am I thankful for this Thanksgiving?  Besides the normal family and friends, I am thankful that I realized what a jerk-head this doctor is before I allowed him to come near me with his knife.

Cat