So, I'm apparently old....

I got to see my new pain doc yesterday, and to be very honest I did not expect much of a result. I figured I would meet some new doctor that would throw pain meds at me for a few months while I worked with my primary care doc to get into physical therapy. But I gotta say, it went so much better than I could have ever predicted.
I have a really great pain management doc! He's an anesthesiologist who works with a neurosurgeon and a physical medicine and rehabilitation (PMR) specialist all in one office. He is also the only surgeon in Maryland (and one of the few in the country) that does the procedure (out patient laproscopic surgery) I will probably need in the next couple of months. 
He reviewed my case, my symptoms, and my prior procedures and took a look at the MRI from my neck that was done in January....and pronounced that I have Facet Syndrome in my neck, meaning that the joints in my neck are degenerating. That combined with the fact that I have already had a hip replacement is pointing to me having Degenerative Joint Disease (DJD). I thought it might be because I was a dancer and a runner in another life, but no...it's congenital it seems. Lucky me. 
My mom keeps asking why I have so much wrong, why I have to go through all of this. It looks like I may finally have an answer to that question.
I'm scheduled for an in-office procedure (Facet Block) next Thursday. It's a diagnostic procedure that will definitively diagnose Facet Syndrome and set me up for the next surgery. My medical insurance has recently starting refusing to pay for a procedure that would burn the nerves in these joints that are causing me pain, so my doctor described a surgical option that accomplishes the same thing. He'll go in laproscopically and clip the nerve instead of burning it, thus offering me (hopefully) longer term pain relief. 
I have miraculously been sent once again where I need to be. I ended up in Michigan the year that I finally needed my hip replaced and found the number two surgeon in the country to offer me an option that would last me the rest of my life, and now I have ended up once again just where I need to be. My new pain doc is the only surgeon in Maryland that does this surgery for my neck.
Thank you Karma, for you are kind when I need it most.