Chapter 11: Get a Second Opinion. Get a Second Opinion. Get a Second Opinion.

The What, Why, When, How, and How Much of Second Opinions.

My family always had a rule about surgery. Unless it’s a life or death emergency, always get a second opinion. Sometimes a third. Couple of times a fourth.

One summer, when I was a preteen, I had injured my coccyx bone from a double whammy of growing too fast and riding horses multiple times a day. The bone, supposed to look like a smooth open letter C, had turned into a rough copy of a W.

Every so often, I experienced random acts of paralysis followed immediately by sharp shooting pains up my back. I was paralyzed from the waist down, stuck in place. The one-two punch might happen after sitting at the kitchen table for lunch or in the classroom for an hour or at the movies. I feared I would be stuck in place forever. For a kid with undiagnosed ADHD, lovingly called ants-in-her-pants, this was a nightmare scenario.

The shooting pains ricocheted through my spine, my arms would jerk violently and involuntarily. Once I knocked over the heavy kitchen table, turning the linoleum floor into a …