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  #1  
Old 09-21-2015, 05:45 PM
cici cici is offline
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Join Date: Sep 2015
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Default New member Cici wants to hear your cervical ADR experiences.

Hello dear members,

I'm new to the forum scene in general. Due to my own misunderstanding, prior to introducing myself, I entered a couple of earlier posts under a different registration that did not seem to go through. That being said, I am starting over fresh.

It is, indeed, a good thing to have a community of people with whom I can share information, thoughts, feelings and experiences related to ADR and spinal surgery.

I am 60 years old and an acupuncturist and former professional dancer. For my entire life, I've been physically active to the extreme and have had injuries along the way, including a major dance injury, multiple athletic injuries and a fall down a flight of stairs [Mercy!]

In December 2010, I had my first spinal surgery after incurring an extruded cervical disc from carrying a heavy briefcase. These days I try not to carry Anything anymore and use a fanny pack and have my groceries delivered. I knew about disc replacement back in 2010 and asked the surgeon if he would do that for me. He answered with an adamant "no!" and I ended up getting a right T1/2 posterior foraminotomy and partial discectomy. At the time, I was in agony and required surgery asap and did not question the doctor further. He had come recommended by a friend who'd had lumbar ADR performed by him. Upon waking, the excruciating radiating pain in my right arm was gone.

However, three months later, in spring 2011, I started getting intermittent, right-sided migraines with nausea/vomiting and right-sided hand cramps, symptoms I'd not even had before the surgery. Over the years, these symptoms slowly increased in frequency.

Between then and now, within the past 12 months [September 2014 - May 2015] due to severe arthritis, I had both hips replaced. This arthritis most likely developed due to a dance injury that ocurred sometime between 1995 - 2000 [tore all tendons in both hips.]
Upon arriving home from rehab, after my right hip replacement, in September 2014, I felt a sharp pain in the right side of my neck and immediately suspected it was related to the 2010 disc injury and spinal surgery....plus possible trauma related to the hip surgery.

Moving back in time a bit...I had incurred severe injury to my neck due to repeated sexual abuse at an earlier time in my life. There's more. In 1990, I accidentally somersaulted off the hyperextension bench in the gym due to threadbare roller stabilizers and landed on my neck and back. Amazingly, nothing was fractured. My body was still resilient enough at the time to recover, but in the back of my mind I knew I'd "pay" down the road. Then, in 1995, I fell while roller blading and landed on my right elbow. I was wearing wrist, elbow and knee guards at the time. But, the motion jammed my shoulder up into its socket. I had radiating pain to my right arm and followed with chiropractic treatment which helped. I seemed to recover, but have had recurring pain over the years between my neck and right shoulder. As if that wasn't enough, I fell down a flight of stairs while rushing off to class while in graduate school for acupuncture and Oriental medicine.

Back to the present time...after the first hip replacement I went to rehab for 2 weeks and followed with out patient PT for my hip and my neck [and lower back, but that's another story.] My hip got better, but my neck did not.
My left hip was replaced in May of 2015. Upon awakening from the surgical anesthesia the neck pain was completely gone. My surgeon said this was likely due to the cocktail of medicine in the intravenous anesthesia which included a corticosteroid and yet additional pain medication. About 3 weeks later after the meds wore off the neck pain returned worse than before and with radiating pain and tingling in both arms and hands. Then, I started to experience weakness in my right arm and hand.

My former spine surgeon is not in my current health insurance network. So, he recommended his partner [Dr. F.] Dr. F. recommended a cage fusion between C6/7. Having learned from my last spinal surgery experience I thanked him politely for his time and left.

Since then, I have, so far, sent my medical images and documentation to Dr. Bertagnoli [Germany] Dr. Kuansongtham [Thailand] Laser Spine Institute [Pennsylvania] and Drs. Stern and Neubardt [New York.] I intend to reach out to Dr. Bierstedt [Germany] too, but am holding off because ONZ requests a standing ex ray which I'll have done, most likely, later this week or early next week.
Speaking of medical imaging, I bought DICOM software for Mac earlier today and viewed my cervical and thoracic ex rays. Tonight, I'll attempt to view my MRIs.

About 2 months ago I started my on line research into ADR and it has been a daunting journey. One of the biggest obstacles, for me, has been separating glamorous marketing from the hard facts. It has been challenging to find long-term statistics [even though statistics can be slanted too!] So far, it's been my experience that long term data is quite limited at this time and not so easy to come by.

I have, at this point, received 2 opposing views from 2 different spinal surgeons. One surgeon [in Germany] confidently recommends 2-level, semi-constrained cervical ADR, while another surgeon [in Thailand] initially recommends standard fusion. However, he requested that I send my MRI and ex ray cd's by drop box so that he can make a final assessment. I thought I'd sent everything, but apparently did not. So, I'll see what he says after I send all the image files.

In the midst of the vortex of this experience I came across 2 articles that mentioned Dr. Charles Rosen, an orthopedic spine surgeon at UCI [University of California, Irvine] considered to be in high standing. I found these articles to be of great importance for two reasons. 1] They shed light on ethical issues and financial transparency around ADR research in the USA. 2] In these articles, Dr. Rosen states that he has a special interest in treating patients who've had ADR surgery over seas and require revision surgery after returning to the USA. In fact, the article states he's done quite a few of these. This gave me reason for concern and to question the long term outcome of ADR. I think this is very important especially because most American spine surgeons don't want to have anything to do with you if you've had spine surgery over seas, let alone any previous spine surgery from another surgeon even in the USA! So, I reached out to Dr. Rosen's secretary and asked if Dr. Rosen knew Dr. ...[one of the ADR specialists I've reached out to] if he recommended him and if I would be in good hands. The secretary returned my call and said that Dr. Rosen's opinion of Dr. .....was poor and that I should not go. That sent a bolt of fear through me, especially after all the glowing marketing I'd previously read on line.

So, here I sit deep in thought still wondering, questioning and researching.

I'd love to hear, in as much detail as possible, from those of you who have had cervical ADR.

Thank you for reading!

Cici
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July 2015 possible grade 1 anterolisthesis c6/7, multilevel ddd w disc height loss esp c5-c7, facet hypertrophy upper cerv spine, esp c2-c4, diffuse mild, marginal osteophytic changes throughout cerv spine. Cerv mri: broadband disc osteophyte complex c5/6 extending to central aspect cerv cord. Disc osteophyte complex mildly indents canal c6/7. Severe rt c3/4 degen facet arthrop. Small rt central protrusion rt T1-disc hern. USA doc suggests c6/7 cage fusion. Looking into cerv adr in Germany.

Last edited by cici; 09-21-2015 at 05:47 PM. Reason: need to change a word choice
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  #2  
Old 09-21-2015, 09:51 PM
Harrison's Avatar
Harrison Harrison is offline
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Join Date: Oct 2004
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Default

Thanks for posting Cici.

I am so sorry you've had many arthritic conditions, along with some unusual symptoms.

"...I started getting intermittent, right-sided migraines with nausea/vomiting and right-sided hand cramps, symptoms I'd not even had before the surgery..."

Have you considered a systemic cause? Are all these joint issues related to another factor or disease? Lyme?
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"Harrison" - info (at) adrsupport.org
Fell on my ***winter 2003, Canceled fusion April 6 2004
Reborn June 25th, 2004, L5-S1 ADR Charite in Boston
Founder & moderator of ADRSupport - 2004
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  #3  
Old 09-22-2015, 07:50 AM
cici cici is offline
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Join Date: Sep 2015
Posts: 5
Default Arthritis DDD and Related Cervical Symptomatology

Hi Harrison,

Thanks so much for your concern and your questions. I do not have Lyme. In my case, the osteoarthritis is due to 2 predisposing factors: genetic predisposition [mom had hip and shoulder replacement, dad had spinal stenosis, both due to osteoarthritis] and articular cartilage damage accrued over the years from extreme use and multiple injuries.

As for the right-sided migraine with n/v and right sided hand cramps, these symptoms are actually not considered unusual and fall under Classic Cervical Syndrome [see link below.] http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2881998/

Some people can even experience palpitations and sensations akin to angina and "panic attack" even if they are not upset about anything. They are not "crazy." These are physiological responses within the nervous system due to cervical nerve root irritation/compression. This can be frightening and confusing for the person experiencing it. That's why it's so important to have a doctor rule out other issues [cardiac, etc.] to narrow down the cause of the symptoms.

Cici
__________________
July 2015 possible grade 1 anterolisthesis c6/7, multilevel ddd w disc height loss esp c5-c7, facet hypertrophy upper cerv spine, esp c2-c4, diffuse mild, marginal osteophytic changes throughout cerv spine. Cerv mri: broadband disc osteophyte complex c5/6 extending to central aspect cerv cord. Disc osteophyte complex mildly indents canal c6/7. Severe rt c3/4 degen facet arthrop. Small rt central protrusion rt T1-disc hern. USA doc suggests c6/7 cage fusion. Looking into cerv adr in Germany.
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