The Doctors – When To Get A Second Opinion

So I shared my personal story with all of you today, not only because so many of you have shared your stories with us, with me here on the stage, but also because it’s important to highlight the process of knowing when it’s time to have surgery. In this case, for me, it was an elective surgery, and I’d gone through every possible conservative treatment. After two plus years, I decided that it was right for me, in consultation with you. But I’m gonna let you give a doctor’s prescription, because a lot of people don’t know when’s the right time.

In my field, spine surgery, if you have progressive numbness and or weakness, that means the nerve is undergoing damage. You don’t want to wait a long, too long on it. You want to make sure the imaging matches the symptoms, because a lot of times the patient has issues, but I see and I’m like, no, your imaging is not matching your symptom. Your symptoms are not coming from the spine. So that is very important. You know, you want to make sure all the ducks are lined up. And you know, as a surgeon, I mean, if you’re a good surgeon, you keep surgery as the last resort.

Yes.

Sometimes the best surgeons have the lowest rate of surgery because they’re willing to try other things first.

I would just say be cautious if you’re not having progressive weakness, numbness.

Yes.

Things are stable, if, okay, next week we’re gonna rush you into surgery. There are a lot of other options out there. If you’re not sure if it’s right for you, getting a second opinion. And also just make sure you find the right doctor. Not always are they gonna open up the book or the chapter where they wrote a complete chapter on the surgery you’re having done, which, for the record…

Yeah, pretty cool to see.

Thank you.

But I just wanna say thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.