[Juli]

Hi Holly,

I would recommend you get a couple of opinions from experienced ADR docs, that is what I did before I made my decision. I flew to Munich and saw Dr. Zeegars,who I did like very much, but I think Dr. Bitan in NYC, hit it perfect with the diagnosis. I had an unusual situation though with a partially congenitally fused L5/S1, that kind of threw in a twist. It doesn't cost that much for an opinion though, and then you are armed with that added bit of knowledge and can make a more informed decision. Dr. Zeegars would probably have figured it out during the surgery or maybe during the discogram, but Dr. Bitan was able to tell from the MRI and XRAYs, and sure enough, that disc was the main generator as evidenced off the discogram. So, moral to my story is, it doesn't hurt to have two or even three different sets of experienced eyes take a look and then you really can feel confident before you make the leap. It could just as well as been reversed, I have heard nothing but good things about Dr. Z, but after three opinions ( I also so a doctor at the Virginia Spine Institute) I felt much more confident.

Whatever you end up deciding, wish you the very best!