Candidate for surgery

[captal]

So I finally got to see a top Neurosurgeon at Emory in Atlanta, well his resident anyway,
Dr. Barrow himself was traveling at the time of my appointment to give a lecture. His resident reviewed my MRI's and determined that I was a candidate for surgery based on the MRI's and the Symptoms I described to him. I was told by him that the decision would be left up to me and that I could proceed now or wait until I can't take it anymore or until there is an increase in symptoms or something changes rapidly.  When I asked " what about the possibility of a related condition causing my symptoms? He replied
"well that's a good question" ,but did not say anything along the lines of, "we'll rule that out before performing surgery", he only continued describing the surgery to me. While it's nice to know that someone finally acknowledges that fact that I'm not crazy and that I actually have a condition that needs attention, it concerns me to go ahead with this at this time. I think I'll have to wait until I can see a specialist so that I don't wind up making a hasty mistake. Just wondering if anyone else has been told to " deal with it until you can't take it anymore and set up an appointment, we'll do your surgery then."

[selmaS]

  Hi...that is a very typical statement for this surgery as it is always up to us to decide.....unless it is an emergency situation the Dr will not decide if we should or should not have surgery.

Most any NS will offer surgery, as treatment as that is how they get paid... but.make sure you have one that looks into ALL related conditions....and  when you have the Dr you are comfortable and confident in, you will find making the decision to have surgery a little easier to make.