Do you have neuropathy? I do in my left due to that asshole neurosurgeon nicking my L4 branch when he was in there doing a laminectomy back in 2013. Still makes me grumpy. I should have sued the MF.
It is similar, but different. Same medications that help neuropathy help me whereas traditional pain meds that get rx'd for non-neuropathic pain don't help me just as they wouldn't help someone dealing with neuropathy.
Something going wrong in neurosurgery, especially spinal, is unfortunately more common than you might think. There's a reason it's a last resort, and most good neurosurgeons won't even operate unless a patient is beyond a significant point. Like right now I have an issue with my C-spine that causes my entire right arm to constantly burn and I've lost some degree of fine motor control in my right fingers. I'm still way too functional and my pain level is not high enough that they will even sniff surgical intervention on me. If it got worse, then I'd be a candidate. I don't think lawsuits of that type are very easy to win. The bar of evidence of wrongdoing is extremely high and there are a lot of protections in place for providers. That's my understanding, at least. I could be wrong. Effing around with the spine is just a dicy business, although it's necessary in some cases, and in others, I don't blame patients rolling the dice. I've seen a lot of patients, with severe problems and I didn't blame them.
I had a series of foot/ankle surgeries around 10 years ago which helped my problems some. There was a risk of the problem getting worse with those, and I did it anyway. In fact, one of them did make things worse, and it was awful. Fortunately a corrective surgery was able to help. I know if the corrective surgery hadn't worked, I would've been miserable for the rest of my life and regretted doing the surgery every day. It was mind-numbingly awful.....a living hell. But prior to that, I didn't know the outcome, and I was already miserable, and when they told me the risks, I thought it was worth it, because I was already crippled and in pain. Anything kind of surgery dealing with nerves is a risky, risky business.
