Hello everyone
 

I guess my signature tells most of the story, but I want to introduce myself.

I am 39 years old and the past 3 years have been pretty rough with back pain after a fluke injury put my back over the edge. Like most people here I have tried the conservative route and found little to no relief and am looking to have the pain gone and my life back.

I am in Ontario Canada so I know the options here are very limited and time consuming so I am looking at biting the bullet and going out of country even though it means spending my house money. :bawling:

Currently looking most at Clavel in Barcelona and it seems like Borree would have been a good option too if not for the accident. Baring that I am also looking at Pimenta in Brazil.

Right now I am getting all my documentation in order - just missing an updated MRI since my current one is too old - to get some doctors to take a look at me and see if I am a candidate or not...

The site has already been a huge help and the people are here are definitely inspiring. :)

Hey Jeff.....I now live in the USA but grew up in Canada, so know how hard it is to get cutting edge medical assistance....I just recently had a one level adr with Dr. Clavel (see my signature) and have nothing but good things to say about the whole experience....if you go to their website (http://www.bcn-sc.com/ ) , email or phone them directly as they are very helpful....if I can answer any questions about my experience feel free to PM me and I'll be glad to help....good luck in your research and for sure do lots of it.

Hi Jeff,

I went through all the same hoops out here in Calgary last year and the late Mr. Boeree did wonders for me.

If you have any canuck specific q's, ping me. Good luck!

-Brett

I've been thinking about Clavel and am in preliminary discussions with his office - originally they wanted to hook up with Ritter-Lang :O. Anyways I just got updated MRIs yesterday and I should get the report tomorrow, then I make copies of my docs and start sending them off. :/

Hi Jeff, Sorry to hear about your back pain. I am also from Ontario.
Great to hear that you are in communication with Dr. Clavel. Unfortunately I financially could not go that route and had adr surgery here in Canada.

There are a few surgeons in Canada that perform adr surgery... But not many...3 that I know of...Dr. Jarzem, Dr. Roy and Dr. Bouchard.

Your mri in 2010 sounds similar to mine. All the best at your appointment for your results. Does your doctor that you are seeing think that adr is your best option?

make sure you ask lots of questions about the "Marfan-like" problems... definitely not a typical comorbidity for an ADR patient!

(No longer) Laid-up-doc - I Probably overstated the Marfan stuff. I do not meet the criteria for Marfan syndrome but I do have some symptoms, e.g. I was born with a pectus excavatum.

So clavel is suggesting 3 level lumbar adr. Scary stuff - was expecting 1 or maybe 2 but I know from my MRI that the lower 3 are affected to varying degrees. Waiting to hear back from a few more docs and also speak with Clavel on the phone...

How to know how many levels?
 

I am confused and I think rightly apprehensive at the thought of 3 level ADR but how do you know if that is the right call? Ritter-Lang said 1, Clavel is saying 3, waiting to hear from Zeegers and Dare and TBI.

I just am really scared about doing either to many or too few.

Arghhh....

What have you had done for diagnostic work? Discograms? Anything else? That might help you figure out how many you need done to deal with your current condition. If one level is only slightly gone compared to the others you might look at ADCT to treat that level combined with one or two ADRs. For that matter, if your facets aren't up to it, you might find you need a hybrid of fusions and ADRs. The other to remember is that, while it's cheaper to replace everything in a single surgery, it isn't impossible to go back in and fix a level in the future. It's really going to depend on how much of your pain is being caused by each level and how likely each is to need replacement in the foreseeable future.