Patient: I had a back injury in 1969 while in the service and was medically discharged. At the time I was told not to bother putting in a claim. It was during the vietnam war and the attitude was intolerance. I have suffered with constant back pain, but exercise has helped. Now I have a disability that prevents me from exercises that helped. I have applied for V.A. disability and have been denied and am appealing. My question is is their an independent doctor in the Santa cruz, Ca. area that will review my V.A. x rays and write an opinion?
Optional Information
Gender: Male
Age: 61
Already Tried: websites and many phone calls.
Doctor#1: You will probably not be able to find any radiologist on your own to read 40 year old xrays. However, your lawyer would have a much better chance of getting this done.
Patient: There is a misunderstanding of my question. What I am looking for is a doctor that specializes in Lower back pain to look at an e x ray taken by V.A. recently. This is a doctor in or around Santa Cruz,Ca. that will write a opinion as to weather my pain situation is possibly being caused by an old injury or strictly caused by a transitional vertebrae. As I said previously, I am not looking for any obvious stock answers like call this service or that one.
Doctor#1: Without an examination and further testing, I doubt any doctor anywhere would do that. Your best bet is to see a lawyer and have him or her get a physician to swear that your current problem was caused by the earlier injury or was not. Physicians don’t want to get involved in other doctor’s diagnoses so it is near to impossible to find one on your own to do so. You can certainly see another doctor for a second opinion, examination, etc. and bring the xrays with you. That constitutes a doctor-patient relationship and is something entirely different.
Patient: please have someone else answer the question.
(Question Status: Awaiting for second Doctor opinion)