[David]

I guess I should give some background information first, so please bear with me...

I am 33 years old, and I have been diagnosed with two herniated discs about 10 years ago (L4-L5, L5-S1). I have been through all the "traditional" therapies, such as: physical therapy + drugs, ice, heat, epiderals.

Generally, I have about a 6 month time frame where I am in less pain, and then a 6 month time frame where I am in more pain (rinse, repeat).

That being said, I have gotten to the point where my quality of life is basically non-existant. I can't do anything that I want/like to, yet I am constantly in pain.

So, I went to a group of Orthpedic surgeons in the Columbus area and recently had a discogram done (wow, did that suck). From what I am told, all of my pain eminates from the L4-L5 area, and not from the L5-S1 area.

After looking at the results, the surgeon recommended spinal fusion, primarily because his office was just starting to do the ADR surgery (January 2005), and were starting at the L5-S1 level before working up to the L4-L5 level (at my age, I am generally against having fusion done, and have been following the ADR procedure's progress in the U.S. for the past couple of years).

So, I decided to wait until May to have a follow up appointment to see what, if anything changes in his office between now and then.

That all being said, I guess I have two primary questions:

1. Should I think about looking into other surgeons in the U.S / abroad to potentially perform the ADR surgery? I am noticing that a lot of people fly to Austria/Germany to have this procedure done at about a cost of $27k. I am not entirely against this, especially considering the fact that I speak German (although I should note that my family, with very litle actual knowledge, is very much against me flying to Europe to have this done).

2. What about health care? I have read a lot of posts here and in other places, and I recognize that most (if not all) health care providers are not currently covering the ADR procedure (I have UHC, by the way). Should I think about proactively contacting UHC about this?

Any advice / thoughts / opinions that anyone has to share would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

David