[Lewis01]

Reading posts on this site has been very encouraging for me. I appreciate and am impressed how people read and reply to each person's unique situation. I am at the point where I believe I must have surgery done. I am in the early stages of deciding what to do, but prefer to move forward.

Since 1999, I have been trying to find a non-surgical solution for my degenerated lower back. Steroid shots brought temp relief each time for about a week after. I went to 6 chiropractors before I ran into no. 7 who uses different techniques and is marvelous. Tried massage therapy, different herbs, every back excercise there is etc. In 2002, After 42 years on the meat & sweet diet, I got on a mostly raw food diet. I call myself a flexatarian, because although I eat (& juice) mostly raw vegatables, I also eat some eggs, fish, and occasional meat. Because of diet, big changes occurred & back pain subsided to a large degree. If anyone is interested I can discuss more about the anti inflammatory / regenerative diet & herbs etc. I am on etc.

To my dissappointment there is little if any blood flow to the disc and all my efforts to regenerate my disc have failed per discogram, mri, & catscan. The rest of my body has profitted from this anyway. I even spent all the money I had in the world 1.5 years ago to buy a Hydroworx exercise pool. It has an underwater treadmill, jets etc and is great, but still does not fix my discs.

Now I want to make the absolute best decision possible concerning my back. Choosing the best doctor & best disc etc. I may be making this all harder than it is due to fear of the unknown, but I am terrified of making the wrong decisions. This is therapudic just typing this out.

So far my reading has led me to believe that the U.S. has nothing to offer for me & that Germany or England is a much better choice. I'm scared of Stenum hospital because of some posts I've read. I've talked to the US rep for Stenum and the US rep for Bertagnoli. I've also talked to Texas Back Institute. I plan on contacting Boeree in England.

HOW DO I KNOW WHICH DOCTOR & DISC IS BEST? Bertagnoli seems like a great choice as a doctor, but from what I've read he prefers the pro-disc, which I believe is 20 year old technology. Boaree, Stenum, and others seem to prefer the Spinal Kinetics M6L. The US rep for Bertagnoli says the M6 is not what it's cracked up to be. What about the "Freedom Disc", ActiveL, Maverick etc. I'm going to have to live with this the rest of my life. I believe doctors do what their trained to do and comfortable with many times, and not what's necessarily best. That's why I'm not doing this in the U.S. Sorry this is so long. Future posts will be short. What do you all think?