My ADR continued

[chuxk79]

Well I had left off by attending my first luncheon to gather info on ADR and or just getting some relief information. The meeting was great as far as learning more about spinal problems and also getting to meet other people in the same boat as me some with good results and some not so good.
I went for years not even being able to explain what levels my problems were at because I had gone thru so many procedures and doctors that all I could say was I had a very bad back.I didnt care about levels. But after attendind my second luncheon/discussion with DR. Zeegars I realized that knowledge and understanding was key to making any kind of decision of this magnitude when
it came to removing and replacing discs.To make a long story short I did my research and a lot of forum reading as well as other web links and animated procedures.
After having several long conversations with Mark ******* I decided I was ready to try to have a chance at a better life before I got much older
and especially since I had sold my house and could afford surgery. Mark had informed me that for a minimal charge he could take all my films and reports and take pictures with a 8 pixel camera and transfer the info to a web page on the internet, I agreed, now I was in the position to be able to show my records to any doctor in the world via internet (kool).We sent my records to several Doctors One of which was Dr Bertagnoli who is one doctor I had read quite a bit about on the Forums.
Some where along the exchange of info Dr. B thought I was 28 years old and his reccomindation
based on that age turned out to be a single ADR and 2 Dynesys because in a younger person the Dynesys could be reversed depending on the progression of the patients disc decease down the road. Anyway it was decided that I was a canditate
for a 3 level ADR (yahoo).
I told Mark ******* That I wanted his services from start to finish as this is a once in a lifetime decision and having someone with me thats been thru it and had a great repore with the
Doctor took a big load off my mind. Mark even got to scrub in and watch my surgery. We had a lot of
conversations, question and answer sessions before we finally got the surgery date which was
changed at the last minute to a few days earlier.
Finally we made our travel reservations and as it turned out we got to LAX earlier enough to get on a little earlier flight to Chicago that would give us a few extra minutes in Chicago that it turned out we needed.Mark was on a isle seat 1 seat up and across from me and I was on the 2 seat side with a 260lb man at the window. It all worked out in the end with a little seat swapping.
We got to chicago and before you knew it we were
on our final plane Lufthansa heading for MUNICH

[Harrison]

Thx for sharing Chuck -- your point about empowerment through education is powerful.

We sometimes forget the complexity of this new procedure, the many risks, and of course our own unique anatomies and how we repond to the trauma of surgery...so having your "head on straight" before ADR is a real blessing.