Marina63

[golfnut]

It sounds crazy to me, too. I don't think your surgeon sounds very confident, which would have me running away from him at full speed! If scoliosis is the cause of your pain, I feel like surgery would certainly be better for you now rather than later. From what I have read, if you wait too long the results aren't as good and the recovery can be tougher. Also, I know that many on the forum were unable to exercise as much as they would have liked prior to surgery because of their pain. I truly believe it's important to be in top physical condition going into any major surgery. Good luck. I hope you can find a different surgeon who will take your insurance.

[rohrer01]

That sounds crazy to me. I am 48, turned 48 while I was in the hospital after my surgery. My doctor kept insisting that having it done now would be much better than waiting until I am older. I wonder what your surgeon's logic is?? You are in pain now. Basically you have to suck it up for another 15 or so years. Are you in the United States???? I am appalled!

Yep, good ol' US of A. I was one degree off from the surgical criteria as a teen. They could have fixed it then and saved me a lot of trouble. Oh, insurance is wonderful. My husband pays $830 a month (his work pays his half) and my doctors visits and meds bring that total well over $1000 a month. He thought about cancelling it, but I reminded him that if I ever get this surgery it will probably cost over half a million dollars. Upon hearing that, he re-enrolled us in the plan.

[rohrer01]

It sounds crazy to me, too. I don't think your surgeon sounds very confident, which would have me running away from him at full speed! If scoliosis is the cause of your pain, I feel like surgery would certainly be better for you now rather than later. From what I have read, if you wait too long the results aren't as good and the recovery can be tougher. Also, I know that many on the forum were unable to exercise as much as they would have liked prior to surgery because of their pain. I truly believe it's important to be in top physical condition going into any major surgery. Good luck. I hope you can find a different surgeon who will take your insurance.

The last time I saw him he didn't seem to think the scoli was the source of my pain, although every other time he agreed it was. I complained of pain since I was 12 years old and finally when I was 16 it got so out of control (unbelievable!), I suffered through a whole weekend, then my mom finally took me to a chiro on a Monday. When he took the x-rays, he broke it to my mom that that had been what was wrong. I felt bad because she broke down and started crying. We didn't have insurance and that's why she didn't take me to the doctor or let me go the ER for my pain. After that she took me the Phoenix Children's Hospital where they had a scoliosis clinic.

As far as my insurance, it's a stupid HMO. There are NO doctors on my policy that perform scoliosis surgeries on ADULTS, only kids. I have to get approval to go out of network. I can only get a second opinion from an in-network provider and there aren't any. Now my insurance, after fighting with them for several months to be able to see this doc, as I had seen him before, has the gaul to say that his facility is "their center for excellence" and I can only go there to get a second opinion. C'mon, what kind of a joke is that!? He's the only scoli doc there!

[Elisa]

As far as my insurance, it's a stupid HMO. There are NO doctors on my policy that perform scoliosis surgeries on ADULTS, only kids. I have to get approval to go out of network. I can only get a second opinion from an in-network provider and there aren't any. Now my insurance, after fighting with them for several months to be able to see this doc, as I had seen him before, has the gaul to say that his facility is "their center for excellence" and I can only go there to get a second opinion. C'mon, what kind of a joke is that!? He's the only scoli doc there!

That is one of the craziest things I've ever heard.

I know I have thoroughly bashed our own BC medical system many times as they did absolutely nothing for my son and his scoliosis but in other aspects they have been very good and of course it's virtually free. Neither the Canadian nor the American medical system is perfect and I honestly don't even know where to begin to make things better for both but I wish I knew.

[Marina63]

Surgery cost

Yep, good ol' US of A. I was one degree off from the surgical criteria as a teen. They could have fixed it then and saved me a lot of trouble. Oh, insurance is wonderful. My husband pays $830 a month (his work pays his half) and my doctors visits and meds bring that total well over $1000 a month. He thought about cancelling it, but I reminded him that if I ever get this surgery it will probably cost over half a million dollars. Upon hearing that, he re-enrolled us in the plan.

Your surgery will probably be up there in price. Mine was $130,000. The hospital alone was $2000 a day!