Mark Cwikla MD

Dr. Cwikla provided me a second opinion on a surgery I recently had and it was a very refreshing experience to be treated with compassion and true concern for my health rather than the indifferent response I receive from my other spinal surgeon. Dr. Cwikla is objective, he listens to what I have to say and is nothing other than an amazing professional who I would highly recommend. It seems that many physicians /​surgeons see their patients as a means to an end for financial gain and nothing more. Dr. Cwikla is extremely qualified and genuine.

August 2005, 10:15am
Sign in at the doc’s office, fill out forms, sign release forms since the damn HIPPA laws and the dorks at the MRI place sent them the 1^st report but not the 2^nd, sit down and wait.
and wait…
and ask what the hold up is… he’s stuck in surgery, he will be back soon…
and wait…
About NOON, we finally got to see the neurosurgeon (Nickname «TheCuteOne»). He asks me about my migraines, my numbness, my symptoms, and really listens to what I had to say. For once in this whole crazy shabang, I had a doctor listening to ME! He pulls out the MRI (and the X-​rays sent with me by the Chiropractic Neurologist I had seen the week before) and shows the Chiari and starts drawing little happy faces and lines on it. The fact that my Chiari is only 8 mm was a good thing and he said that it just didn’t look like they were crowding each other that bad. It was possible that the «hole» that the cerebellar tonsils fell in is bigger than «bigger than normal.»
He says that he wants me to go get a second opinion (maybe a third if 2^nd doesn’t agree), but he just didn’t think my condition was bad enough for surgery at this time. He wants to talk to the other doctor if Mr.2ndOpinion thinks I need surgery, and he wants to send me to a new neurologist to start a brand new pain medication and treatment plan to see if we can treat my Chiari without a knife and a zipper-​scar.
After he talks to me «TheCuteOne» asks my parents if they have any questions. My mother brings up the 2^nd MRI that I had done last week and the absence of a syrinx. He flat out tells us that had my 2^nd MRI from Tuesday resulted positive, and that I had a syrinx, then instead of pain medication and new doctors… that our conversation today would have been more along the lines of hospital gowns, designs shaved into the back of my head, and what color stitches I wanted in my zipper.
He said that the Chiari surgeries were «FUN» and that you get to go in there and see all kinds of neat stuff. but he frankly didn’t think I needed it yet. He’s a brain surgeon, he says he does necks and backs for «FUN.» Then he seals the deal by saying, in front of my parents, «if you were my daughter, I wouldn’t do surgery.»
This was the first neurosurgeon I saw for Chiari and I was a little put off by his suggestion that my surgery was something he did for fun, like waterskiing. The reason I can’t give Dr. Cwikla more than the 1 star, is because he is the one who referred me to Deborah Cantrell… the drug dealer who made the first six months of my life as a diagnosed Chiarian a living Hell.