Neil,
There are some highly experienced spinal arthroplasty surgeons in Asia, e.g. Singapore and Korea. Believe it or not, some people in this community have flown to Thailand for ADR! Do a search on this board (the advanced search works well) and you’ll find 21 topics involving Thailand. The costs for an ADR procedure vary wildly; see the FAQ forum for more on this complex issue.
By the way, I think there’s probably a lot of people that will do your job for you while you are away! But you may not get it back when you return….
