[SpineInSecurity]

My ADR was done by Dr. Deshmukh at Carolina Neurosurgery & Spine in Charlotte, NC. You might recognize the names of some of his colleagues - Drs. Dom Coric and Tim Adamson.

Everyone there seems to be deeply involved with advancing the art and science, rather than just accepting a stream of checkbooks, err... patients and saying "You need a new disc and I can fix you" to everyone who walks in. From my experience, they also take time with patients - by the time I'd left Dr. Deshmukh's office at my first visit with him, I was entirely comfortable with the idea of getting the implant vs fusion, we had a plan for future work (freeing the C8 root with a microdiscectomy) and most important, I was comfortable with him as a person and his skills. That first visit was nearly an hour long, but my neck was literally on the line.

I don't recall exactly what kind of UHC coverage I had, other than it was a "consumer directed" plan. Think it used to be called Definity in the past. I was in a bit of a race to get the ADR done by the end of 2011 as my employer decided to switch us all over to Anthem BCBS.

As for looking better - one of my co-workers said I look more relaxed than they'd ever seen me. Also, my head is finally straight. For years, I had a touch of wry neck, with my head tilted slightly to the right. Apparently, the C5-6 disc itself was a bit wedge-shaped, and straightening out my head is a happy side-effect of the perfectly flat implant. The only snag is that the muscles on my right side have been accustomed to my head being tilted, and now that "a bit longer" is their new normal state, they have to get used to the stretch.