autoimmune diseases are nothing to f- around with... we (physicians) don't understand them very well, there are many of them and many people who don't fit neatly into the boxes. it's one of the areas of medicine that is still poorly understood due to its complexity and heterogeneity. i'm not a rheumatologist... when i see a patient w/ lupus/RA/MS and i think they may have a problem related to that disease, i am scared and on the phone w/ their specialist PRONTO.
if someone looks you in the eye and says that an implant won't do anything to your MS, they are flat out lying.... because THEY DON'T KNOW, and they are too cocky or greedy to tell you as such.
i would be scared out of my mind to get an implant that can't be removed if i had an autoimmune disorder... especially MS, which goes off the charts awful if it goes haywire.
last on my list of implants, were you to decide you MUST have ADR, would be a prodisc - b/c the chromium/cobalt alloy is less stable and pieces will get into your bloodstream. this can cause further autoimmune reaction, or a local problem... all VERY BAD STUFF.
you're a one in a zillion case, probably no spine surgeon has put an ADR in a person w/ a KNOWN autoimmune disorder. azhure is 1 person - what you'd call a case study - but a warning sign nonetheless. autoimmune disease is one thing that will disqualify you from nearly any clinical trial not aimed at those diseases, including prodisc/charite/bryan/any other spine device.
i know people have had varying degrees of success with different surgeons around the world, but i wouldn't trust any inventor of any device to put something in my body when there are better alternatives out there, any further than i could throw them. i'm a strong gal, but i try not to stress my implant
PLEASE, PLEASE, i IMPLORE you, tread with serious, serious caution.