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Old 09-28-2005, 03:46 AM
Poncho Poncho is offline
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Join Date: Oct 2004
Posts: 422
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Mark,

It is a tough position to be in "limbo" in regards to making a decision like this.

I can only share with you the shoes I walked in prior to having ADR surgery. I worked full time for 2-3 years before surgery, and taking pain medications when I would get home from work. Not much of a life really. Basically, I kept a schedule of going to work in the morning, come home, fix supper, melt into the couch and go to bed just to get up and do it all over again. No social life what so ever and every minute of every day had to be planned out activity wise. Weekends were spent recouperating from the work week on the couch with some light house hold chores.

Eventually, the pain became so intolerable and crippling at times that I had to stop working and come up with a plan to get to the bottom of my problem. I made sure that I researched what was available regarding current technology with the spine, and researched my own spine issues. I obtained multiple opinions regarding my back and lots of diagnostic tests to find out where all the pain was coming from before I came to a decision to have ADR.

Once all of the diagnostic tests came back that the pain was discogenic in nature and multiple opinions suggested that ADR would work in my case - I eventually took that leap of faith.

You will find that spine surgeons will differ to a certain extent in opinion. I guess it relates to more on how they are trained. It can be frustrating at times figuring out what would be best for yourself. In my case, I too had one surgeon recommend fusion, however, the rest of my surgical opinions leaned toward ADR.

Unfortunately, I am unfamiliar with your surgeon mentioned above and can not provide any feedback. Hopefully, some of the other forum members will come along and provide some insights there.

I am a successful ADR recipient (Prodisc) and couldn't be more please with the result at this point. Am I completely pain free??? No - I mean sometimes I am pain free as if nothing had ever happened to my back and then other times, I get a few pings of sciatica and low back achiness - BUT I will take this any day over the life I was living just prior to ADR.

I know that fusion has had it successes too. However, with a fusion, once it is done - there is no going back. What I mean by this statement is that once fusion is done, and you are still having significant pain levels, you can not go back to surgery and have the fusion removed and have ADR in place of it.

HOWEVER - if you get ADR first and if it does not work out, you would have fusion as another option to draw from.

I hope this helps you.

Sy,
Poncho

PS Sorry for such a long post - I can get "windy" sometimes.
__________________
Sincerely,
Poncho (aka Prodisc Poster Girl)
2 level ADR (Prodisc)
Dr. Bertagnoli May 22, 2004 Rudolfinerhaus Vienna, Austria.
Currently DRUG FREE and living life again!
Knowledge is Power!!!
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