Hello all, glad to have found this place
 

I almost posted a reply to wcwalker because my story sounds similar to me (without the neck for now). I'm not going back to the nuero that did my discectomy because he oversold the results and then never seemed to want to explain or even show me the post op MRI. Just told me to be patient.

It's now been a year and the pain is getting a bit worse. When I brought it up, Primary care doc says ADR sounds like a good choice but he doesn't seem to be fully engaged on the subject. Maybe it's just me, but my confidence in docs is way down since I've had to spend more time with them lately. Seems I'm missing a link between my primary care guy and a good surgeon who can do a multi-level ADR if required.

So my immediate plans are to get a cervical MRI on 10-2-12 to find out maybe why I've had a headache for 2 months and then get a referral to Vanderbilt Med where I hear they do ADRs, tho I don't yet know how often. I think I will have to go up the usual ladder if I have any hope of getting BCBS-TN to pay anything for ADR. but other than that I'm ready to be out of pain and off pills yesterday.

How does one get objective opinion from a US doc when a muti-level ADR should at least be part of the conversation?

Dan, that's been the perennial question since I started this community in 2004. A small number of Euro docs have been doing ADR since the 80s. But many US docs have been doing all kinds of spinal surgeries, including multi-level ADR, since 2001. Honestly, I'd like to know why more docs aren't helping us avoid surgery.

How is your pain level and daily function these days? Any more news or progress?

Its so frustrating! Like you frustration and lack of confidence sent me on a search for answers... Hopefully by self education, research and mulitiple visits with Neuros I have reached the right decision! I am having a multi level ADR with Dr. Clavel in about 2 weeks. This forum and the many generous people here, sharing their experiences helped me make my decision. Best of luck!
Hopefully, you will find your answers soon. As with any surgery I am anxious but I feel confident that Dr. Clavel is the best choice for my circumstances... funny thing - I'm more nervous about being "put to sleep' than the actual surgery, at least at this moment. As time nears I'm sure my nervous condition may worsen! :laugh:

1. Please ask for a copy of your pre and post-operative discectomy MRIs for use with the next surgeon, if you choose that path.

2. True, patience makes a difference. Two (2)-year results appear to be the objective in the FDA IDE trials. However, discectomy w/o a more immediate results makes one wonder. You need the pre-operative MRI report from the radiologist. An example from the radiologist might be "lateral recess osteophytes". The surgeon's operative report might then state "remove lateral recess osteophytes".

3. The Primary care physician opinon is interesting, at least a point-of-view was offered. My primary care phys. was cautious to offer none.

4. I vote with you, "off pills yesterday". There are trade-offs and no back operation is perfect as the surgeon needs access to make anything happen.

5. Please do no convince yourself yet that you need a multi-level ADR/TDR without (understandable) diagnostics. You may be asked to get a discography to identify the pain source.

Multi-level ADR/TDR is OK+, but the more levels involved with surgery increases the risk of complications and decreases ... blah blah

Look at UCTV and the P.Mummameni / D.Chou video if you have the time. They spend more time discussing issues than most office visits with surgeons,
http://www.adrsupport.org/forums/f50...-89-min-11534/

Sorry it looked like I wandered off. Work has been unbelievable lately and I can hardly sit at my computer to do that. So, on 9-25 I started a 6day 10mg Pred pack. It initially helped with the pain in my back and neck for the first few days. The oral steroids always did, though the constipation and insomnia that goes with them keeps them out of the " miracle drug " column. The last 2 days the headache is back with a vengeance and nothing helps though narcotics distract and allow me to sleep. The cevical MRI on 10-2-12 showed 3 bulging/compressed discs in my neck. This reality, along with what I'm getting from my reading around this board and the web have caused me to move toward Slackwater's position on surgery. I was naive in my strictly mechanical, broke-fix, approach to the problem.

The various research projects on injections to revitalize the existing disc are interesting but I don't find one that I could get into now and I don't think I can wait for them to become approved or otherwise mainstream. This headache is starting to scare me because of it's affect on my ability to think and process information. I see the PC doc Monday to go over the MRI. I'm cooling in my desire to get surgery soon but I'm ready to pull the trigger if I can have confidence that what I'm doing will work. I really want to understand more about why I have these problems, if possible. My stats look pretty healthy otherwise. No triathlete, but, I'm just saying....

PS: I do have the pre and post op MRIs with the report, from my L4-5 discectomy that took place 11-4-11