One thing I have to say is that besides giving great presentations about ADR and other spine information also, the two speakers that I've seen were both amenable to answering questions from individuals and were so nice/down to earth. It's not like the 2 minute out the door spine specialist visit one might encounter along their spinal journey.
As Bob mentioned in a previous reply to this thread, each time I've come away with not only a whole head full of information on ADR or other spine technology information, there's the potential to come away with a gem or two that may specifically apply to my spine problem/case in some way.
The settings for these events have been very nice, and comfortable. I had to lie down more less for both of these as I cannot sit for long and there was either room to do so, or lounge chairs to lie on.
Mark does a wonderful job of hosting the presentation and addressing issues and saying things that come right from the patient's viewpoint, bringing up topics or thoughts that are important to "us" the injured pain population. Mark~ in case you haven't personally met him, he's humorous and humble, compassionate and kind. He gets these events up and running and makes the attendees feel like family and friends.
And that's what it almost seems like, a group of friends, an alumni of Spinally Challenged people, those who've taken the plunge with surgeries, ADR, fusion and other, and those who are in the wings for one or another. Riding the fence maybe, waiting for FDA approval, or just whatever will give each person the "green light" for surgery, or not. There have been persons there with surgical successes, and those with varying degrees of success, or perhaps failure. It's interesting to hear from these people and/or have the opportunity to interact with them as well.
This time is going to be amazing just given there is nowhere else we could hear this many top spine specialists gathered and speaking to "US"!!!!
I'm going to just hope that my back will allow me to attend this event~ I'm going to try to tell my PM doc to "hook me up baby" with something that'll allow me to get there!
This should be a really amazing luncheon/event/get together of East and West Coast spineys and maybe Euro spineys also~
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