When the 2nd opinion counts

Well, I had my 2nd opinion on my lower back issues yesterday from Dr. DeLuca at the Orthopedic Institute of Pennsylvania.  My, what a difference a doctor can make.  First of all, he asked for my history.  After I'd told him about the Diazapam and falling down all of those times, he pulled up my MRI.  He showed it to me from several angles, top to bottom, left to right, front to back, in a slow, methodical manner, point things out to me.  "These are your Lamina," he said, "and while there is some narrowing, there's nothing there indicating they need to be removed.  And this," he pointed to a little wedge of black, "is disc protrusion between your L4 and L4 vertebrae."  That's right, I have a floppy disc.  The Doctors at Arlington never mentioned a disc problem to me.  maybe they didn't think it was important/

My back

Will I need to have surgery?  That would be totally last, last resort.  No back fusion for me!  On Wednesday I'm going to set up a schedule for Physical Therapy for a 30 day period and after that he will reassess my situation.  I also get to go back to work much sooner than expected.  When I think about all of the time I wasted before getting a 2nd opinion I get a bit cranky.  This time the 2nd opinion counts.