[Diesel562]

Hello everyone. I want to say thank you for this site and everybody involved sharing their experiences. This is my first time posting and I’m hoping to get more answers. I’ve had lower back pain for close to a decade that I can recall but like most cavemen I never looked into it. I learned how to be mindful in the gym and moving heavy objects for the most part.

My back pain is typically around a 4 to 5 and it’s constant. Approximately four or five years ago I started having trouble sleeping through the night. I’m guessing I get around three or four total hours of onset to ruptured sleep a night currently. The lack of sleep is most definitely affecting my every day life and is by far the biggest concern as far as my symptoms. I wouldn’t find out until later that I am waking slightly and adjusting as a result of my back tightening up.

After a turbulent day driving some heavy equipment at work my back seized up as it has from time to time over the years. I went into my chiropractor who recommended PRP injections which we did. A few months later I felt maybe 15% better and just went on with life. Around six months ago I switched to a new chiropractor who did x-rays and felt I needed to do more imaging and recommended an MRI because she suspected herniated disc. After we got the imaging and the radiologist report back it was confirmed I have a 5 mm herniation in my L4 L5 with 60% disc space and a 4 mm herniation in my L5 S1 with 30% disc space left. She recommended I see an orthopedic surgeon and I decided to see three. The first two I looked at the imaging and recommended pain management for a few years and then possibly a fusion from L4 to S1. The third recommended total disc replacement with the pro disc L.

After looking into disc replacement online and watching a ton of video on YouTube I decided to move forward with the replacement only to find out that my insurance probably isn’t going to cover two and Best will only cover one if I’m lucky. At this point I’ve looked into ways I could finance everything.

Basically where I’m at now is deciding if I’m going to pay out of pocket for surgery here in the states which could be anywhere between $60-$75,000 I was told or deciding to go go overseas. I’ve read a lot of posts in regards to getting disc replacement in Germany or England and I am intrigued by the M6 versus the pro disc because of the major difference being compression and not wanting adjacent disc failure. I submitted my imaging to Enande with Ritter Lang ( i’m aware there’s been some negative reviews).

Id like to get in contact with some of the surgeons that have been talked about on this site to see what my options could possibly be. Any recommendations on other surgeons and opinions on types of ADR discs are appreciated.