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Old 04-06-2022, 10:08 AM
annapurna annapurna is offline
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Join Date: Dec 2004
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I don't have the knowledge to help with revision of a fusion to ADR. It used to be extremely difficult and chancy but that knowledge is at least a decade old and may be out of date now. To pick what I can help with:

-Adjacent disk damage next to a fusion is less likely with cervical disks. Not impossible but less likely than with lumbar disks.

- The M6 has some bad press recently as well as concerns that Rich (AKA Harrison on this board) and I have raised in discussions on this board. That doesn't mean it's a "bad" ADR, just that it has risks that were not being acknowledged when it first came out. Same thing with Clavel as a surgeon. Anyone who's been active for as long as he has will have bad outcomes. It's more a question of how much risk and what kind of risks you're willing to tolerate. Certainly, if you're local to Clavel, many of the concerns a medical tourist has with unavailability and difficult follow-up are mitigated by your proximity to his clinic

- Heterotopic ossification is much discussed on this board. I'd suggest searching here but the treatments all make it less likely, not impossible to happen. Back when Rich and Laura got their Charites, those treatments were hit and miss and both of them never had ossification, so it's a matter of improving odds on preventing something that only happens some of the time anyway.

-Exercises - any core strengthening exercise within the tolerance of your recovery status and current pain will likely improve things for you but I'd find someone who's willing to listen to your medical problems and tailor a program for you. Many of the exercises are good and healthy done "this way" but mess you up further done that subtly different "that way" so it's important to get training to get your muscle memory trained to do it right.

-Mother Cells - I'm assuming you're speaking about stem cells here? If so, you can find a lot of people who advocate using them to strengthen soft tissue around the spine. The idea is to reinforce the structures around the spine (exercise is needed for this as well), decrease instability in the spine, and make it less likely for disks to degenerate. It's very difficult to find anyone willing to inject stem cells into a disk to try to encourage it to regenerate. Notionally, it makes some sense but the costs and risks involved are sufficiently large that you're not going to see a lot of practitioners doing it, nor will you see a lot of data as to whether it works. I do know of one that does do it in the western US but, to my knowledge, he's not published results of his work. I know he's willing to talk through things on a phone consult. Should you be interested PM me and I'll point you in his direction.
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Laura - L5S1 Charitee
C5/6 and 6/7 Prodisc C
Facet problems L4-S1
General joint hypermobility

Jim - C4/5, C5/6, L4/5 disk bulges and facet damage, L4/5 disk tears, currently using regenerative medicine to address

"There are many Annapurnas in the lives of men" Maurice Herzog
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