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Old 07-08-2016, 10:16 AM
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Cynlite Cynlite is offline
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Join Date: Mar 2015
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Oh come on, you don't hate to do this. In my opinion, you've been putting Dr. Clavel down all week so you can elevate Dr. Bertagnoli in your mind. That's fine but, don't use a basic email response from his extremely busy assistant to decide that Dr. Clavel is a bad neurosurgeon. The letter just says to me that they need more information and would be happy to take the time to tell you what it costs if you are interested. Did you notice that she didn't include a price for the two level surgery? It was just a polite response to your email to figure out if you want to move forward.

I'm sorry that you are scared, angry and in pain! I reluctantly spent several hours writing you a long post to your request for information about Dr. Bertagnoli and the Prodisc a few days ago because you said Harrison directed you to me. I tried to only fill it with facts and information I have gathered while still being sensitive to all the former patients. After I wrote it, you quickly blew it off without even a thank you so, I deleted it. That was two hours that I wasted. Later, you made some unsolicited disparaging remarks about someone's recent surgery x-rays after he had a successful surgery with Dr. Clavel and was out of pain for the first time in eons. (Your post and my response we both deleted.)

It's pretty clear to me that you made up your mind a long time ago who your surgeon will be and any information that is not positive about Dr. Bertagnoli or the Prodisc will be discounted in your mind. I don't fault you for this because part of this journey is definitely taking a leap of faith in a surgeon and the technology. No surgeon will ever have a 100% track record and that goes for the discs too. Do you see a pattern in how you are thinking? I do. You have made up your mind that Dr. Bertagnoli is the surgeon you want to do your operation! I hope later we will hear about what a huge success your surgery was and that you are out of pain. I really pray for that for you.

There are many former patients of Dr. Clavel here who credit him for saving their lives. This is the reason that so many patients from this Board have made the trek to Barcelona. Other patients have stayed in the U.S. and had successful outcomes. There is not a one size fits all solution to this puzzle of pain. Heck in my case, I couldn't even get a consensus from all the surgeons I contacted in the U.S and Europe! One last note, you really don't know Dr. Clavel until you have spoken to him. He's an outstanding human being in my mind and I feel so incredibly blessed to have met and spent time with him.

P.S. This thread really belongs in the International Forum. Hopefully, Harrison will catch it and move it over there.
__________________
2006: epidural shots did nothing; 2 surgeons recommended 2 level fusion, I declined.
2007 - 2010 4 foraminotomy and cord decompression cervical surgeries and 2 endoscopic discectomy T7-T8 surgeries; total 6 with Dr. Jho (Pittsburgh,PA) My C6/C7 autofused around 2009.
2013 - 2015: epidurals 3 times (again did nothing) and 4 Radiofrequency ablation (or RFA) procedures.
2016 more RFAs, hit the 10 year mark of this insanity and pain, 3 level M6-C ADR with Dr. Clavel May 19, 2016

Last edited by Cynlite; 07-08-2016 at 04:47 PM.
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