[jasonwidup]

So I decided to go forward with the Axiomed clinical trial. Thanks to the members of this forum I went and had a second and third opinion as I was concerned about my facet joints. Both Delamarter and the other ortho that I saw that does ADR said that my facets are just fine for this.

The ortho who I went to for the 2nd opinion had nothing but amazing things to say about Delamarter. He went as far as to say that if he had to have an ADR that he would only go to Delamarter. He also said that if I were his patient, based on how I present he would definitely recommend ADR before fusion. He noted that if it doesn't work, that fusion isn't that difficult after ADR since they just leave the disc in and fuse around it.

So here I am in LA all the way from Seattle. Axiomed agreed to let me into the study even though I don't live close to any of their centers as long as I agreed to fly back here for all of my follow-ups. I travel here for business anyhow so that was easy. I head in at 5:30a PST on 4/21 for a 7:30a surgery. When I'm up and around I'll post my results.

Thanks again for everyone's input. It really helped me to ensure I did all of my due diligence and now I feel at least 95% confident in my decision. Not sure I would ever get to 100%. Thanks mainly to annapurna - your posts were very thoughtful and direct and really helped. Hooch, thank you for your concern over my facets.

Here we go!