first things first and good news

[Melody Beattie]

Got good news today. It looks like my insurance company will be reimbursing me for the surgery if I have it in Germany. They said they had no problem with it as long as it was an approved surgery (not experimental) with a legit doc at a legit clinic. That felt very good. The other news is, I meant with my pain management doctor. He said the pain I've been so stoicly fighting for so long has taken a toll on my body. He is suggesting that I not rush immediately into surgery. He wants me to get on top of the pain, give my body a break from fighting the pain, before I put it through more pain from more surgery although he totally agrees that the adr surgery is the next right move for me. He just wants me a little stronger as he says fighting the pain has weakened me. My job now is to rest and heal. Give my body as much a break as possible from the pain. And get strong before the surgery which my insurance company has so graciously agreed to pay for. It's all good. I never knew that being in pain could damage one internally. I thought pain meds were just a matter of comfort, not important to the healing process. That's it for now. it's been a long day. Every day lately, things have been happening. I may even decide to go with Zeegers. Something about a doc calling you personally, well that feels pretty good in this world.

[Alastair]

Hi Melody,
if ADR is a procedure that is going to help you, then I strongly suggest you get on with it if there is no other impediment.

I can see little excellence in filling yourself up with medication -- -- -- that you might quite well get addicted to -- -- -- and is poisoning your body system.

If you are absolutely sure ADR is the correct procedure for you -- -- -- go and get it done. I walked back out of the recovery room when I had mine done with Zeegers and the old pain had gone immediately. Note my comment on "my story".
Best,
Alastair

[T.O. stephen]

Hi Melody.

I'd like to suggest to you, if you're considering ADR in Germany, that Stenum Hospital near Bremen is a great alternative. I had my two level surgery there in January and am very happy I decided to go there. They are a world class 70 bed hospital and Dr. Zechel and his partner Dr. Ritter-Lang are very experienced, excellent surgeons. You can learn more at www.getadr.com,or reply to this post and i'll tell you more about my experience.

[Alastair]

Stephen you ought to read Mr Bees story of the mess they made of him at Stenum first before posting this maybe.

You were lucky I think!

[Dano]

Alastair is right, only Mr. Mcbee is not the only mess just the worst! Any Doc or Hospital, eventually will have a bad outcome. But several in one month and how they were handled is the problem. (One=accident)
several could be a pattern? Take care, Dano

[lisa]

I've seen patient stories of spinal surgury failures from many well known spine surgeons, including Dr. Zeegers, on the net. I'm not sure how you as a layperson interpret these antidotal stories to figure out what errors are in the realm of normal human error and what are indicative of a more significant problem. The ADR procedure is a good one in the proper patient but it certainly doesn't have a near zero failure rate, it's a complex major operation.

I guess I would caution one about relying too heavily on any one source of information, no matter how good, and to try to cross check information as much as possible.

[Mariaa]

Melody,
What pain meds do is break the cycle of pain (hopefully) and allow one to have a little reprieve from pain.
Healing actually takes place in persons that are probably going to have lesser problems than you or I~ problems that can heal on their own or rather in an immediate postoperative situation.
Some medications for pain are much easier to stop taking than others. Hopefully if you go the route of taking some pain meds, it will be just a short while.
I've been on an opioid medication that has a rather nasty withdrawl process and whoops time has flown since I first planned on having surgery (2003) and now 2005 and I'm still on it.
Isn't going to be an easy one for me coming off of it...
Without the pain medication I would be in bed all the time except to get up to go to the BR and Kitchen so I know that muscularly I have done my body a favor and probably kept osteoporosis to a dull roar in my hip and just a bit better with my back by being weight bearing for these past few years..
However, I did get quite a few epidural steroid injections and these really give me a relief from pain all together~ so it's sort of a give and take situation here.
I think for me if I was sure I would be having the surgery, and the insurance was going to pay, I'd make those plane reservation and go. Light pain meds to help take the edge off so you can better manuver/travel.. and maybe some to take with you if you need some extra at these Euro facilities. Make sure to find this out from others that have been there~
Finally, congratulations on your insurance news/reimbursement for Europe! You've hit the jackpot~

[Harrison]

The Stenum issue is a serious and complicated issue. I wish I could spend the time to write a cogent summary of everything I learned (a great deal by talking to patients), but I can not right now.

The percentage of patients at Stenum that have had complications are far more than other hospitals. I've talked to several of them. But I've also talked to the patients that have done very well after having ADR at Stenum.

Here's what bothers me -- even in the ad banner that Stenum advertising uses, the disc placement is WAY too anterior! And this is their ad?!

Also, I don't like the idea of being a patient in "ADR speed surgery ." E.g:

"My operation was November 7th at 7pm and only lasted one hour! I was told by a surgeon in the USA that a great surgeon was always faster than a mediocre surgeon.

Even if the surgeon did 100 surgeries, I don't want to feel like I am going to a MASH unit for a quick visit. Make sense?!

[Alastair]

I don't think that anybody wants to dwell too much on the problems that Stenum has, except their greed for money and lack of expertise.

I think all of the members should try and learn from the experience of those who have had surgery and experience plus knowledge.

I would agree that no surgery is 100% there is a risk with even the finest surgeon.

There is only one instance on the net lisa that I can recall over the last 10 years of any problem with Dr Zeegers surgery. And that particular person insisted on a procedure thinking they knew more about it than the doctors and when it didn't work out they blamed the doctors

[mmglobal]

I thing that comments like "greed for money and lack of expertise" do not address the relevant issues at hand, They are inflammatory and they drag the discussion down to a level that is not productive.