2 different Dr.'s 2 different opinions - what do I do?

May 1, 2008

My DD (Emma) got another MRI yesterday. Her orginal Neurosurgeon

wanted another MRI to see if anything had changed that was clear the

first time. Again she said it was perfectly normal and didn't feel

the surgery would help her. She talked about the small percentage of

people with a normal MRI who the surgery helped but she said she

didn't feel Emma was one of them b/c her symptoms are only bowel and

bladder, NOT walking and normally people with the normal MRI have

walking effected to. And pain, etc. (My question is, Emma is 3 with

a very high pain tolerance so how in the heck can you tell if a 3

year old is in pain?? One time she had an untreated kidney infection

where she could barely walk and she didn't even act like she was in

pain!)

But anyway, our 2nd opinion Dr. said that while her MRI technically

IS normal, he sees a bit of a difference, that her spinal cord is

more pulled forward and while it's normal it IS positioned

differently than a *totally* normal person, KWIM? He showed it to us

and circled it. So anyway, we overnighted him this newest MRI. But

HE thinks we should do the surgery and it's no question. The other

Dr. doesn't and thinks it's normal.

So who do you trust? The 2nd Dr. is much, much older, the 1st Dr. is

very new - she's the attending, whereas the 2nd Dr. is head of the

department and has a lot more experience. My GUT says the 2nd Dr.

probably has seen more and knows more. But I don't want to put my DD

through it for nothing if he's " cutting happy " .

ACK. I wish everyone agreed and the choice was crystal clear. has

anyone ever been in this position with 2 different opinions? How did

you choose? If you were us, who would you trust? (Both are good,

large Children's Hospitals)

LInda

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