Luckyshot,
I'm happy to be of help. Just so you understand, if it weren't for my neck healing from recent cervical surgery, I could play tackle football according to my surgeon. Here is a link to his website:
New York City Minimally Invasive Spine Surgeon | Daveed D. Frazier, MD If you look at the pain page, he has a link for a free MRI review. While he does not personally perform ADR, he is in touch with some of the first surgeons who have done so in the U.S. I believe he is in the Baltimore, MD area. Tell him everything that you told me so far. I'll give you my full name in a PM, so you can tell him that I told you to contact him. Just so you know, my surgeon happens to be African American. He is considered to be one of the top 10 of African American spine surgeons in the U.S. He attended Harvard Medical School and did his residency at Mass General Hospital (Harvard's main teaching hospital).
I was set on doing ADR for my last surgery. I had flight reservations booked to Germany (not paid though). He talked me out of going abroad. He did offer me the option of ADR through his colleague in Baltimore, but convinced me that it was not necessary in my particular case. It didn't take much convincing for me not to spend $40K out of pocket.
BTW, if the surgery costs more than your annual salary in out-of-pocket expenses, you can ultimately reduce your tax liability down to zero for your Federal and State returns (you can't go into the negative unfortunately) That means that everything you had withheld from your job would be refunded to you.
Gene