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Originally Posted by Cynlite

I spoke to Dr. Clavel this morning. What a gracious man! I expected no less after reading so much about him here. I feel a little less freaked out about his diagnosis.

It was a very good conversation and I'm glad I spoke to him because he answered my questions and helped me to develop a plan of action. I want to work with my pain specialist to get some epidurals hoping to determine if my L3/L4 and/or T7/T8 are pain generators. Dr. Clavel is the only surgeon to address these problems even though they are on my MRIs! I want to get a few more x-rays done to rule out injuries to my shoulder and hips. I also want to see a doctor to rule out fibromyalgia. I don't think I have it but, I've never been evaluated for it. I also need to get the metal allergy test. It's very hard to understand where the pain is coming from when one has pain all over the flippin' place! Once I rule out these other things, I will have the information I need to move forward with my surgery plans. I'm pretty sure I'm looking at 3 cervical ADR's (C3/C4, C4/C5, C5/C6) although Dr. Bierstedt only recommended two. I just don't know if I want to tackle a lumbar fusion too! Apparently, my facet joints are shot at L3/L4 so, I can't do an ADR there...that is such a bummer! I doubt I'll tackle the thoracic issues and didn't really talk to the doctor about it. Wish I had in hindsight. I'll email him about it later.

I'm still waiting on Dr. Zeegers' report and want to know his diagnosis as well. Hopefully, he will confirm what Dr. Clavel thinks but, of course this is still a work in progress until I get the other tests. I feel like I'm finally seeing an end to this very difficult and long journey. Most likely it will be 2 - 3 months before a surgery date. I hate this hurry up and wait part but, it is what it is. I'll try to use the extra time to get another opinion and set up a U.S. based surgeon in case I need one. I do plan on buying the insurance so, that (God forbid) I can go back to Dr. Clavel if there are problems after the surgery. I hate to even think that way but, it's a risk that we all take.

I was able to record our Skype conversation and am glad I thought of that ahead of time because already I want to go back and review what he said about a few things. Even with taking notes, it's hard to remember everything! I did let him know I wanted to record the call and he gave me the okay to do that. In case anyone else wants to do this, you have to download a free program to do it because it's not part of Skype. The program I loaded brought along a couple of other programs that ended up screwing up my Chrome so I had to uninstall it completely. I'm trying to get it reconfigured again...what a hassle. Still glad I have the video though.

Also, I asked him about the Mobi-C compared to the M6-C. He said he used the Mobi-C 10 years ago but, doesn't want to use a device that is unconstrained. This is the part of the video I want to watch again. I can't remember the rest. I don't want to risk further damage to my facet joints so as long as I don't have issues with any of the metals in the M6-C, I think it's the way to go for me.

Last thought to share is that I did start using hormone creams over the last week (talked about in another thread I posted) and I think they are already helping me to feel better and have less pain. I hope this is not all in my head LOL but, I do feel a little better....I'll take it!

Isn't it amazing...Mobi-C is brand new here, and he says he used it 10 years ago. welcome to the United States....FDA approved