If it's out there, I've tried it.......................well some exclusions apply! No to morphine, no to medical weed and no to higher dosage of pain meds of what I've taken! Because of what I have had done to my neck (surgery wise) some procedures are not available, ie stem cell injections. At 1 time a pain mgt place did some injections, but were not botox. I've been wanting to try botox, but no place will do it without insurance. Even paying up front they will not do it? I guess so they can rape the insurance companies? To answer your question, yes, I did try acupuncture. Back in 12/04/21 I had a pain like none other! I took 2 different pain meds about 20 to 30 minutes apart just to try and calm the pain. After 2 hours and ? pills later I went to emergency. Luckily the doc on call was my regular doc. 1st he had the er give me a shot of ? that had no affect. He showed up shortly after the injection to see me in an amount of pain he's never witnessed from me. He asked me questions I couldn't answer due to pain. Wy wife gave him good info of what she observed and by pointing to those areas to confirm of what she was relaying to him. Well, he gave me some high powered iv that finally calmed it down to being able to converse with him. About an hour later I was discharged, but I was still up all night. I am glad for my vision, hearing, motor skills and being able to walk, but some doc out there should be able to get this fixed!
i had a "run-around" with an insurance company/doctor up here. here, the doctors accept what the insurance companies pay, for procedures, and therapy, etc.
of course they can always charge us the balance the insurance does not cover, but i have yet to receive any such bills.
that being said, i can call the billing dept of the doctors office, and say i'll pay what your office accepts from the insurance company, and i have yet to hear NO.
this actually happened to me, when i needed a urine sample testing kit for whatever is causing my stones. my former insurance paid 100%.
my new insurance doesn't cover the same exact testing kit, so i offered to pay cash what the old kit was....and i got it cheap(er) as it was a cash "deal"
it's all bout the up front money, as insurance companies can take several days to weeks to pay a doctors office.
none of us should have to pay a darned thing, or at least not full pricing, when the doctors office fully accepts the insurance companies actual payment.
as for my last 3 back surgeries, and my very first one, years ago, those were done by Neurologists, not orthopedic surgeons.
i think it is a major difference, as a Neurologist deals with the spinal cord, which when dealing with back/neck operations, that's a delicate area.
the very definitions of each doctor explains thier specialty areas.
