Anna and Harrison......I thank you for your replies. I'm craving wisdom and insight at this point in the journey. Anna, I'm 55 years old and have had this progressive problem for a good 5 years now. The cash price or finance of the operation would be a bit more than we can handle financially at this point. South Florida is a complicated place to live for those of us not making significant salaries. The neurosurgeon in Colombia stated that his fee minus hospital expenses for a Prodisc was $20,000. That seems at least doable considering the other options. Harrison, if money wasn't the only issue to consider, I would be out at the Texas Back Institute this weekend. I would say that the "right medical choice" is primarily based on the opinions of the experts. An L4 ADR with a little clean up of the disc area at L3 is what has been recommended to me. On the outside of this issue, I wonder if there are any organizations or foundations that work with spinal procedure candidates? One would think that living in the town with the most millionaires per capita that there might be a chance of finding a benevolent philanthropist.....thanks for taking the time to care and to jot down your thoughts.
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DDD diagnosis - denied disc replacement by United Health Care 3x's - Recently, Manipulation Under Anesthesia procedure - much needed relief from constant pain.
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