The New Doctor

Tuesday, May 4th, 2010

Well, the nurse at the new doctor's ( Dr. Lin) office in Albany, Georgia never called me. When I called they said that all calls are returned within 48 hours and please do not call them, that they WOULD return the call.
So I called Hughston Clinic where Dr. Burkus works, that did the other two surgeries. So I checked their web site and they have a Dr. Dorchak who is a spine specialist there. What I did not know was that my orginal doctor only does neck and lower back. But I still can't understand why he did not tell me to check with another doctor to see if anyone could do more for me.
I feel like that Dr. Burkus should have done a complete MRI on my spine, like I ask him to, and if he had seen the problem, then he would not have done the surgeries, except maybe the neck. C5-6 C6-7.

So I blame him for not doing his job the way he was suppose to do.


So Icalled them and they pulled my chart and Dr. Dorchak will look at it and if he thinks he can help me the appointment desk will call me to set up an appointment. This will take up to 14 days.
I have a lot of questions for him, that is, if he thinks he can help, this surgery is a very big deal and I would like to know a lot more about it and what the odds are to it getting me better. According to Dr. Burkus I only have 2 good disks and they are L3 & 4, if I understood him right.

I know that with this surgery, I would not be able to bend my back since it would be fused together, but I have read on the internet where other people have had this kind of surgery and were doing pretty good, also like other people on spine health, not so good. Also my husband has talked to a man that had it and after 1 1/2 years, he was able to return to work, which was pulling a flatbed.

I have checked on the artifical disk, and have read that medicare will not pay for people over 60 to have them put in, even if they put that many in.

On my lower back surgery, L5 S1, both of my disk were fused, where my daughter, who had L4,5 & S1 done, she had one disk put in and one fused. She is 44 years old.

So Thursday, I think I will call medicare to ask them about it.