shoelessj: thanks for the input. My son has had an an ultrasound; an MRI is next. He will probably write to you. He is hurting and frustrated. His life revolved around competing and developing his game against top competition. This is life threatening as far as he is concerned.
waves2ya: thanks for the reassuring words re: Dr. Meyers. Surgery doesn't come with a guarantee. Glad to hear about the great progress you have made. I'll check some of your earlier posts.
I've got BlueCross BlueShield. If it comes to surgery w/Meyers, I'll have to see how much this is going to hurt the old man.