Introduction & Prodisc-L experience
 

Hello everyone,

my name is Chris and I'm from Germany. I might not be spot on with medical details in English, so apologies for that.

Anyway, after 7 years with chronic lower back pain I decided to get ADR done now. When it started I went from doctor to doctor and tried all sorts of things (massages, electro therapy, training, muscle strengthening, painkillers, had my teeth checked, etc.). Had injections last year and they didn't help a single bit.
Been diagnosed with a black disc, so nothing you can do about it really. You either live with it or the pain is too much and you need to fix it. Standard painkillers don't work anymore for 2 years. Am on oxycodon now for about 2 months and it just helps me through the days and nights. I'm not limited in my movement and don't feel any numbness or sharp pain. Walking for an hour or so eases it all a bit, but standing, sitting and lying too long is uncomfortable to painful.

Had my pre-operation meeting with Dr. Schmitz in Germany today (he was one of the first in Germany to do ADR). I almost always read about the Spinal Kinetics M6-L and thought that's the best and modern option I want to have. Dr. Schmitz told me today that he'd rather use the Prodisc-L (sorry, talking L5S1 here).

I didn't really do a lot of research on this one so far, but am desperate for info/experiences on it. So hopefully some of you guys can help me on that.

Thank you.

Chris

Hi Chris,

Welcome to the forum. Glad you found us. There is quite a bit of information in the recovery section. Going to be a tough decision which disc to choose.

Your Engish is very good by the way.

J.

Chris,
Have you consulted with Bertagnoli in Bogen?
He is also a ProDisc L user and it's very early yet (under 6 months) but I spent 8 hours on a mtn bike last weekend......

Hi,

no never heard of Dr. Bertagnoli. I consulted Dr. Bierstedt of the ONZ, but he didn't take much time and wasn't very communicative, so my gut feeling was not very positive towards him, although he should be a good surgeon. But he sends his patients to therapy 1 week (!) post OP. He's got a contract with a physio therapy center.

I just read so many good things about the M6 that in my mind I was focused on that one.