Part 7: Back Surgeon Suggests a Sports Doctor

While I was dealing with the difficulties from this tumor, my leg pain had continued.  I returned to Dr. Haas in the spring of 2004, still trying to find an answer for the pain in my leg.  Dr. Haas was frustrated with the complaints of my leg pain.  I remember that spring well.  I was 65. I remember sitting in the parking lot of a UW facility with tears streaming down my face as I read the results of the MRI recently done on my back.  I wanted a solution so badly. For years the vascular doctors had convinced me that I had a back problem that prevented me from walking a block without terrible pain in the calf of my left leg.  I had had two back surgeries that had not helped, but I wanted to walk again. I wanted to dance again.  I wanted an end to the pain. Since the vascular doctors seemed convinced that the problem stemmed from my back, I wanted to get another consultation in the dim hope that a third surgery might be the final corrective surgery.  Finally, I managed to get a referral from Dr. Haas to see Dr. Zdebilik at the UW, who was considered one of the best back surgeons in Wisconsin. 

As requested, I delivered the films from my back MRI to the UW clinic, and I was later called by the nurse, who informed me that there was NO chance to see Dr. Zdebilik.  As I expected, the nurse, not the doctor, informed me that I was not a good candidate for back surgery.   The nurse also informed me that the doctor suggested I get a good sports doctor instead.  I felt devastated. A sports doctor?  What would a sports doctor do for me, when over the last eleven years I had already had the maximum amount of physical therapy allowed by insurance, repeated Doppler tests, numerous nerve tests, and two back surgeries, and I still had the same problem as I had in 1993?