appt. with Dr. Dobecki

Huntley Pain Specialists
(Michael Huntley, MD)
7592 Metropolitan Dr., Ste. 404
San Diego, CA 92108
(619) 325-1161
FAX: 325-1717

This appointment went well. Dr. Dobecki was recommended by Toby as being one of the best pain management docs in the area. Apparently he is opening a new office / joining Michael Huntley's practice in Mission Valley, near my old office on Frazee Rd. I was initially surprised at how young he appeared, but he seems very knowledgeable. I was able to get my MRI and CT scan images from Kaiser, so I hand-delivered them for Dobecki to peruse. We talked about the scans and my options.

Dobecki agrees with other doctors I have seen that lower back surgery (fusion, disc replacement) should be my absolute last resort. He says that there are other things we can try before we go the surgical route. He wants to do two Epidural Steroid Injections (ESI) -- one on each side of the L5/S1 disc where I have herniations -- under X-ray so that he can pinpoint where the medicine goes. He believes that procedure will give me significant pain relief, hopefully for a time period of 6 months, perhaps even a year. He said it might be like "changing the oil in a car" where I come in every so often to get new injections to relieve the pain. In this way, we buy time until the surgical procedures improve and become better options. If the ESI doesn't work, then he would consider an IDET type procedure.