moose eater
Well-known member
Seattle has good clinics overall, and some of the best neurosurgeons, you're right. Bearing in mind that it was a Seattle cancer surgeon who nearly killed me 3-1/2 years ago, who then committed unprosecuted felonies by putting falsehoods into my chart, as long as a year and a half after I last saw the cunt. I wouldn't have known about all that went on while I was unconscious, but for a good urology oncologist here locally who that turd had confided in, who then told me what I didn't initially know. He violated the holy 'thin white smock line' to inform me of why I was so fucked up. He's a good man.
I research surgeons (especially when it involves risky surgeries) based on the individual Doc (and unlike when I was on a private insurance, I no longer have a network limited to Washington State and Alaska).
All of today's medicine is what I term 'conveyor belt' medicine. Something Gry would label as Rockefeller Medicine.
A massively contributing factor involves the insurance companies grinding down (heavily) the 'negotiated contractual billable' for Docs (my first spine surgery, over 6 years ago, made all of $5,000 for the amazing neurosurgeon that gave me 6 good years to finish playing in the bush with my younger son), and the clinics trying to make that back by getting serious about collecting from the over-charged uninsured and seeing patients at light speed whenever possible.
The second potential spine surgery involves existing scar tissue in the proximity of the open spinal cord's dura from the first triple laminectomy, and possible damage to nerves and dura when removing that scar tissue.. So I'm being more than a bit cautious about who cuts on that.
In that regard, while there's still Minnesota and Arizona to consider (and I know people in both Arizona and LA areas), both of which have better-than-good spine and cancer resources, I've tentatively ID'ed two clinics for now, one in LA and one in Seattle.
But travel, lodging and food are not funded other than by the patient for us geezers, and Seattle is notorious for expensive lodging and food. Way more than West Hollywood.
And I rarely go to cities if I can help it. So, there's location, location, location where any clinic is concerned. Close to the source is a personally enforced mandate for any stays.
And doing this one (potentially both surgeries) solo, as my wife will stay home and make sure the dogs are well taken care of, and the house doesn't freeze up. (And I still need to teach my wife how to operate the snowblower, as it'll be at least 6-8 weeks if any spine surgery goes forth successfully before I can operate that equipment).
I've told all of my Docs, I'm accepting of cancer taking me out. I just need my body to function as long as it can so I can continue my frolicking in the bush until such time as it's appropriate to exit stage left. My desires are not all that complex, really. But sometimes nature has other ideas.
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