Hello Board
 

Hi fellas....new to the site, been reading plenty of posts on here and it's safe to say this is some scary stuff. i'm staring down a 2-level fusion here in the States, or a possible hybrid fusion with what seems to be an inferior disc for the L4/L5 lumbar spine that could potentially be just as detrimental as a fusion at that level....any opinions on this matter?

looks like my signature doesn't want to appear, i did save it.

Hi B, can you tell us a little bit more about your hips? Why were they scoped? Do you have arthritis in your spine and hips?

Thanks for sharing. :beer:

What kind of ADR do they want to use? And where and who is doing the procedure?

i do have some arthritis in my hips. i was experiencing groin pain from intense running i was doing. Nerve pains shooting bilaterally and instability in walking, with a burning sensation at the base of my spine. I had my back checked first, and the MRI was not truly indicative of major damage. No visible herniations or nerve root issues, slight bulging, disc height not bad. i did have moderate DDD at L4-L5 with mild DDD at L5-S1. MY doc didn't even mention anything about any kind of rehab.

Seeing is my low back didn't seem extremely out of tune, i looked at other joints in the area as i was not walking right and in tremendous amounts of pain. Both of my legs felt "shot"...my left a different and considerable more debilitating pain than my right. I had arthrograms done on my right leg first, which showed a labral tear and a cam acetubular impingement....which is torn cartilage and and irregularly shaped "pistol" style femor causing restriction.

So, since that's all that seemed that could be found i thought had potential to be the culprit....i went ahead and did the hip arthroscopy, and that was a MOTHER, simply because i had to rehab it, and deal with the other leg, which doesn't work very well that way. After 6 months, my right leg got better, left still not good. Had that done the following year. MINIMAL help with left leg, now back pain and leg pain have gotten worse..

I believe my back was probably the culprit all along, it's getting more and more debilitating. My recent CT scan gives me another possible target i wasn't aware of before, the PARS DEFECT on my left side, where pain extends. I was in Dr. Coreman's forum (he's on Youtube), and he believes the pars defect stems from an earlier injury in my childhood that didn't heal properly in just tore on it more...apparently this is somwhat of a common injury that holds up for many years, until one reaches adulthood, and gets re-injured...He says there is a surgery to repair a pars defect, but he wouldn't do it unless there was NO DDD and NO Spondolythesis, which i have 2mm of slippage...

I had seen a doc in Merrillville, IN...and he suggest a l5/s1 fusion hybrid and a prodisc L at L4/L5, IF they insurance would cover it, which he highly doubted they would...he said i would be a perfect candidate for it at that level....after some research, i feel like the Prodisc L would not be a good fit for that location of the spine...My work requires alot of bending and twisting type movements at times. I have reservations that the Prodisc would be no better than a fusion at that level in regards to degeneration to the surrounding facets above and below...No shock absorption in lumbar?? OUCH!

Have you consulted any European docs so they could use the M6?

Tpatti, I have not talked to any European docs as of yet. the cost is troublesome for me....i love to hop on a plane and go over there first, the prospects of possibly getting insurance to cover an ADR here in the U.S. is tempting, even if it is an inferior one....although, i also don't want to get caught footing the bill for what is possibly an inferior disc, and inferior surgeon expertise.....UGH!

i will consult with some Euro docs (Bierdstadt and Clavel) shortly....if they say hybrid fusion/ADR like my doc did...my urge to stay here and potentially save a buck could start to kick in.