contranemesis

I can certainly speak for the ineffectiveness of the injections. I have had 3 intercostal nerve blocks with steroids over the past 6 months, and I have only had 1-3 weeks of relief each time. As for the other $40 Billion in your stats, from my experience, I imagine that some of it is spent on imaging while the majority is spent on inflated "specialist's" operating costs. I am sure the last thing you want to hear is another patient complaining about what must be 'unusual' or 'extreme' cases of their bad experiences with incompetent and/or fraudulent doctors. However, I must say that this particular medical specialty does seem to employ a higher than average number of 'quacks'. Just take a look at their hours, which are amazingly similar to those of 'bankers'. And, again, in my experience, the treatments seem to produce lower than average success. Just a humble opinion, etched by painful experience.