Just left the doctor office to review my mri

the report says 'Left cerebellar artery appears to be in intimate contact with the root entry zone of the left trigeminal nerve' on one report and the other says 'Left superior cerebellar artery appears to abut the root entry zone of the left trigeminal nerve'

so that is good news, since getting surgery should be easier to pass through the insurance company. now the dr he is sending me to , i guess he has done a bunch of these, and from what i was told even goes in when the mri shows nothing and gets results. now how do i look up this doctor and what kind of info is on the net about him? dr. J. Alskne, http://neurosurgery.ucsd.edu/john-alksne-md/

so the lyrica is working really well, i dont foresee any problems with the insurance company...so im feeling good right now

I clicked on the doctors tab above --- and his name was in our favorite doctors list -- that means at least one person has had success with him here.... You can just put his last name in the search box above

Or google his name with the words Trigeminal Neuralgia --- his home page says that is on his list.

thanks Kc. well i guess i jinxed it °¿° the insurance wont cover lyrica...and it was 600 bucks! lol so i just picked up some gabspentin - hope it works...then i get told that Dr. Alskne is NOT in my group so i dont get to see him, they are sending a list of doctors, but my doc said only 2 or them are maybees. i looked the one up and he is a star at spine surgery, but nothing about tn/mvd, so i will wait for the list and see what is there. if none have the experience i will call the insurance and ask to see one that does, that is my right as i understand it. so damm not a slam dunk

this is one of the ones, but does not look like he focuses on mvd, or even brains http://drscottleary.com/

John Alksne has been a member of the Medical Advisory Board of the US Trigeminal Neuralgia Association for over 13 years. I met him at TNA conferences in the late 1990s, and web-published a couple of his papers. He knows what he's about.

I generally advise candidates for surgery NOT to do MVD with anybody who does less than ten of them every month. The last thing you need is to be on the low end of somebody's learning curve. However, you'll do better at learning about a doctor's practice by interviewing him or his triage nurse. Questions are listed in one of our Face Pain Info articles on establishing a good doctor-patient relationship. Online rating services are notoriously incomplete for this sort of thing.

Regards and best

Red Lawhern, Ph.D.

Resident Research Analyst, LwTN

You may have to travel farther to get one of the best --- or tell insurance to give you this top guy..... or ELSE!

LOL or ELSE! ok i will print out the list of questions and have them ready when i get the list. i have an HMO and it has a small pool of doctors i guess. on the atena website to find a doctor, they list tic delarue as a condition, and no doctors that treat it...just great lol

OK - that is an ancient list OMG!

Can you look out of network and they pay less?????

I would get a claims examiner / adjuster / whatever they call them - and ask if you can send scientific articles or whatever to back up the claim you need an MVD doctor...A patient advocate in the insurance system????

ok yea that would work i bet. i will get with the dr im seeing now and ask what would need to be in there

I know next to nothing about appealing insurance for different practitioner…maybe your doc office knows