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MaryLou,

WELCOME!!!

I looked for your posts and found where you put it.

http://www.adrsupport.org/private-cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cg...pic;f=2;t=000136;p=1
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I'm pasting it here for you:

Originally posted by mlrpgaud:
[qb] Thanks for the nice welcome. Here is our story which I tried to make as brief as possible.

My husband had a 3-level ADR done in Vienna, Austria on January 8, 2004. Years ago he was diagnosed with spinal stenosis and had calcifications removed from his spine. I don't remember the exact year on that. Everything seemed to be going fairly well until April of 2003 when he had a bout of Shingles. During that time he developed severe back pain which continued long after the shingles were gone. We made the rounds of doctors, MRI's, injections, physical thereapy, and all sorts of tests were run. Along with the spinal stenosis, he also had a herniated disc.

All the doctors recommended a spinal fusion or just plain told us there was nothing more they could do for him. Out of desparation I called my Endochrinologist at Yale asking him to recommend the best Orthopedic Surgeon he knew of. He put us in touch with Dr. Yue.

Dr. Yue gave us hope that ADR would work for my husband. What a relief to talk to a doctor that really understood what we were going through. Arrangements were made for us to go to Rudolfinerhaus in Vienna for surgery.

The care my husband received from Dr. Bertagnoli, Dr. Fenk-Meyer, and numerous other doctors, physical therapists, nurses was top-notch. Two days after the ADR there were some complications which required some more surgery but everything did turn out ok, although it was a very scary time for us.

The one real problem he developed afterwards was numbness in his right leg, Therefore he needed (and still needs) two canes to get around. We were told that the reason for the numbness was probably from scar tissue. The numbness goes from his toes to just below the knee. He has feeling on the bottom of his foot, but not the top. This also causes his foot to drop unexpectedly which makes it impossible for him to drive without a leg brace.

When we returned he went through months of physical thereapy, but there was not a lot of improvement in his mobility. His job was physically demanding so he was not able to return to work.

So, do we think the surgery and the expense of all this was worth it? We have talked about it and without a doubt feel it was a good decision. Despite some difficulties he is virtually pain-free and that makes our lives so much easier. As far as we are concerned the surgery was successful. He was in agony and there was no other alternative. He was 62 at the time so he was pretty close to retirement anyway. "Bottom line" if there is something he wants to do, we manage to find a way to get it done.

I have to say that Dr. Bertagnoli and Dr. James Yue (our doctor in New Haven, CT) are two of the finest doctors we have ever had to deal with. They treated us with the utmost respect and actually cared about our opinion (which is more than I can say about some doctors).

MaryLou [/qb]