Past Dr. McAfee Patient & Dr. B in Bogen Germany
 

I live in Lancaster, PA.
I would travel down to Dr. Paul McAfee in Towson, MD
He was one of the first Dr. to do PRO-Disc on east coast.
He did the clinical trials.
Check him out on the Web, just google him.

Back in 2006, the FDA would not allow me to have ADR since I had previous fusions. So Dr. McAfee referred me to Germany to Dr. Bertagnoli.

I had MVA 14 years ago, followed by C-6,7 fusion, C-5-6 fusion, then C-4,5 Prodisc.
I would never have a fusion again. The ADR stopped the next level from herniating. Fusions do not promote natural movement of your neck.

Hope this helps,
Kriss

You are correct. The doc I picked the surgery date with claims he can take out what the MRI called a 'bulge with moderate to severe impingement' and what he called a 'herniation' by a microdiscectomy.

I doubt the pain in my neck can be solved without surgery. Also my arm is twitching and showing other signs of nerve damage. I will not hesitate in going under the knife for this ASAP!

I appreciate your kind wishes :)

I <3 Lancaster

I have an appointment yet with the Ortho dept at Thomas Jefferson. They (Dr. Jeff Rihn) do ADRs. They are supposed to be #14 in the country for Ortho. I will take their opinion, which if things stay on course they will not recommend an ADR. Then I will likely let Dr. Powers do the operation. Im not crazy about employing a non-spine specialist but:
- he was in there before and did me well (L5-S1)
- he was the first and only guy that seemed to know what he was talking about, and what he said even made sense :jump:
- I've already been out of commission for three months and TJ will take longer than just letting Dr. Powers do it

They are my motives to date. If anyone thinks I am making a mistake let me know!!

Thank you everyone!

When nothing makes sense...
 

Dr Rihn (Rothman Institute / Thomas Jefferson ortho) , get this, recommended a double fusion, C5,6&6,7.:chainsaw:
Dr. Rihn also said that he does ADRs but would not recommend one to me because of the extent of my arthritis, disc collapse (which he estimated at 50%), and because "no one knows if ADRs will last more than ten years.":eek2:

This opinion is an outlier to the range of opinions I have gotten so far. My X-ray states "There is loss of disc space height , osteophytes, and mild narrowing of the uncovertebral joints at c56,c67." MRI states "no significant spinal stenosis."

Considering what I have read about arthritis not being much of a contraindicator for ADRs and the 10 year comment I left there puzzled by the motives of "the #14 ortho clinic in the USA.":sus:

Are my discs up for the junk heap or not!!?:shout:

Wow, that's insane. So what if nobody knows if they'll last 10 years? I suppose some folks might care, but I would imagine a lot of us just want some relief no matter how long. At least... I speak for myself on that one. I think I even told one of the docs I worked with that I'd be happy to have even just one decade with little to no pain than to continue going along the path I was one pain-wise.

In some ways, I can understand some of the report inconsistencies, but only because of what I dealt with. My MRI report was written to make it sound like the disc bulging was mild at all levels bulges were visible, so the first surgeon I approached per a friend's recommendation, declared me a non-surgical candidate and didn't even bother to let me know until I called to follow up. So, I looked into minimally invasive options with another doc at the practice who took one look at the actual MRI images and said nothing minimally invasive was going to help! This was all after my primary care doc at the time completely blew me off with a declaration that it was only an arthritis issue. *facepalm*

Ugh... I'm frustrated for you on this one. Hopefully you get some kind of real solution soon. That double fusion bit would scare me too. As far as I'm concerned... fusion should be a last resort option anymore....

~Sara

It appears as thought mobility for my C6,7 has expired
 

I totally do not believe the 10 year number. I dont know if he was trying to scare me away or what! It seems like 40+ is a reasonable guestimate from what Ive read thought I would not wish to hazard any guess on the 3rd gen shock absorbing ones.

"Only arthritis" lol. As if that doesnt hurt. In my case it seemed all the minimalist time wasting went away when the EMG came back that I was a mess.

Since I am looking less and less likely to be an ADR patient I will start posting my saga over here.

Thank you all for your contributions!

J,

Moderate to advanced arthrosis (especially of the facets) is a contraindication for disc replacement. Bear in mind, with the link you provided:

- Dr. B is one of the foremost authorities on ADR, and his ability (and unique) techniques to "clean up" and prep the spine for ADR is a wee bit different than other spine docs;

- As is the case with other surgeons, e.g. Zeegers and Scott Young, etc.;

- As advanced as these spine docs above, few will perform diagnostics to assess systemic diseases (like Lyme disease) that affect the entire spine and other joints. In fact, Zeeger's clinic is the only one I ever heard of doing these kinds of tests and they do it well. At least they were for years, and I hope they are moving to molecular diagnostics if not already.

I had my my Charite' in 2004, my spine is well. Properly indicated patients do well with disc replacement, especially if they have a good surgeon, good OR team and good luck!

Very true. It would be quite the project to try for anything but the decompression at this point. Maybe an ADR will be possible for my C5,6 if that day comes.

I did check for Lyme. I need to know more about this possibility. Is there a link of what other things may be going on? I was told my spine looks 20 years older. If this can be stopped or understood my later years will be immeasurably improved.

J, regarding Lyme disease diagnosis -- it's a clinical assessment. That said, the doctors in this country are trained differently than in other parts of the world.

Way too much credence is given to poor quality tests that utilize the CDC tracking criteria (not diagnostic). Most labs don't regionalize their test assays to the 300+ strains of Borrelia, even fewer test for co-infections. In fact, most ticks (even non-deer ticks) carry Lyme and other bugs (bacteria, viruses, protozoa, etc.). This is well-documented in the literature and in my interviews with scientists across the US. E.g., see the one with Eva Sapi here.

One of the better blood testing labs accounts for all of these shortcomings:

Welcome to IGeneX, Inc.

There are others, but these guys have been doing it for years. They've been beat up by the various skeptics who wield great influence and power, but they've helped many patients and doctors and are CLIA certified.