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  #11  
Old 11-06-2011, 03:57 PM
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laid up doc laid up doc is offline
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i'm just going to say this once - focus your efforts on whether the device is in right, whether there were other unidentified pain generators, and what you can do moving forward. the prodisc has worked well in many, many people. all of you signed informed consent prior to having surgery.

to dwell on the disc, imho, is a waste of energy and will only make you feel worse. there is a HUGE mind-body connection that is not well understood, but well known by medical professionals. focus on moving forward and you will find you have spent your energy in a more productive fashion.
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US non-spine MD - laid up no more!!!
had recurrent annular tear L5/S1, failed everything
M6L done 10/19/11 w/ Dr Clavel getting back to my old self more and more every week!
laidupdoc@gmail.com if my PM box is full

The content herein represents my professional thought and opinions in a general sense only; they do not constitute professional advice or services. if you need medical advice, please consult a licensed physician.
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  #12  
Old 11-09-2011, 03:32 PM
christinlal christinlal is offline
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Default Douglas,

I hope the Headaches stop soon, it is not much fun to be in alot of pain. I have one prodisc I am making my peace with and getting ready to fix my c5 with an M6, I hope this works, and I hope you find the cause of your pain.
Sincerely,
Christine
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12/2008 early am gym class-something very wrong
2/2009 DDD 4 herniated cervical discs
3/3009-8/2009 8 spinal epidurals, pt
09/2009 C6/7 Prodisc C ADR
11/2010 facet joint inj 12/2010 Rhizotomy TBI Dr. Cottingham months of relief
05/2011 facet Joint Inj 06/2011 Rhizotomy
7/2011 Dr. Zigler TBI, facet block and Discogram
11/18 surgery with Dr/Mr. Boeree..Thank God.
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  #13  
Old 12-02-2011, 02:00 PM
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JKDE302 JKDE302 is offline
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Question

Douglas how are you doing?
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C4-5: Mild disc height loss with central annular fissure. Small broad-based left paracentral disc protrusion. Moderate central canal stenosis-the disc protrusion abuts and mildly flattens the left ventral surface of the spinal canal.

C5-6: Disc desiccation with mild height loss.Diffuse discosteophyte bulge and uncovertebral joint hypertrophy, moderate central canal stenosis- Severe neuroforaminal stenosis bilaterally, right greater than left.
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  #14  
Old 12-06-2011, 01:20 AM
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Douglas Douglas is offline
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My new doctor has ordered a CT scan. He is going to verify the fusion at C7-T1 has completed and he is going to see what is wrong at C6-C7 where the ProDisc is. I'll post back after that is complete.
__________________
Summer 2004 or 2005 – jumped backward off of a trailer onto driveway and felt a snap in my lower back
July 2009 – Discectomy at L5-S1
November 2010 – Arm pain started
May 2nd 2011 – Fusion at C7-T1, prodisc ADR at C6-C7
Present – Headache since May 2nd. Dizzy spells with trouble concentrating and blurred vision and hearing. Mid-back pain that radiates into my chest, neck soreness, numb extremities. Cold chills throughout body.
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  #15  
Old 03-30-2012, 12:50 PM
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Douglas Douglas is offline
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It has been a while since I have posted here. There hasn’t been much progress or change, just allot of waiting - until now. Sorry for the long post in advance.

The CT scan revealed that my fusion had not fully healed eight months out. (CT scan wasn’t till the end of December) Before this my new doctor had talked about removing the AD. Now he changed his tune completely and decided that the headaches, confusion, and mid-back pain was all due to my fusion not being complete and it was moving. He said there is a surgery he can do where he can place rods to stabilize it. He said to come back and see him in mid-April which would be about a year out from surgery and he would check the fusion status then.

I went home and started drinking milk and taking calcium supplements religiously. I did not want another surgery. I was keeping the pain at bay with Naproxen. It wasn’t eliminating the pain but it was taking the edge off.

For the next weeks it was difficult to do my job as a computer programmer. My headache would get progressively worse throughout the week where it would be at its worse by the end of the week. It would start with pain between my shoulder blades that at its peak would radiate out into my chest. There is always soreness in my neck area. Then this would seem to radiate into my head and culminate in a headache in the top of my head. Then there was difficulty concentrating and sometimes blurred vision and muffled hearing. Note that this has been the case ever since the anesthesia wore off from the surgery.

February came and I got stomach flu that lasted weeks. I couldn’t keep anything in me let alone Naproxen. My pain got out of control. By the weekend my headache was so off the charts that I was going crazy. I was taking 220mg Naproxen, two in the morning two at night. This was more than the label allowed but my orthopedic surgeon said that was how much he would prescribe so go ahead and take that much. It wasn’t enough. This lasted a month.

Mid-March I knew I couldn’t wait another month till my ortho surgeon visit so I called in and demanded to be seen sooner. He took an x-ray and said the ADR hadn’t moved and my other vertebrae were still at normal height so nothing had changed. The fusion had made progress and he thought that in another month it would be complete. He said the bad news was that there was nothing he could do for me and this was as good as it was going to get for me. He wanted me to come back when I was supposed to in a month for one final x-ray where he fully expects the fusion to be complete and then he would get me into a pain management program. He prescribed a six day taper of steroids, Dexamethasone, and a month of Celebrex.

What a relief that I don’t need surgery I thought. But this is as good as it’s going to get? This is the rest of my life?

Steroid side effects are brutal. I’ve been on them before. I get all the old familiar ones. This time however I just about fall over from dizziness right in front of a supervisor at work. I ask to leave early and drive home dangerously dizzy. The next day, same thing, every day more and more dizzy. Three days after completing the steroid, still dizzy, I call into my ortho’s office and the lady won’t pass a message to my doctor. She instead directs me to go see my primary care doc. I get in there that day. They do blood and urine tests and come back and says “good news, you’re not diabetic.” They determine that I am having a “severe reaction” to the steroid and it must still be in my system and to go home. They tell me that if it persists for a few more days to go straight to the Emergency Room.

When the dizziness comes I have difficulty concentrating. My vision starts to blur and my hearing is less acute. It feels like someone is dripping ice on top of my head, down my back, down my legs, and down my arms. I experience random pain all over in my knee, feet, arms, legs. When the dizziness subsides, my good old friend the headache comes back to replace it.

Two days later, still as dizzy as ever if not more, I go to the ER. This is five days since finishing the steroid, seven days of dizzy. They do a barrage of tests. They do an EKG. They take vital signs standing, lying, and sitting. They do blood and urine tests. This all culminates in a head MRI. Everything comes back normal. The only comment on the MRI is that they can’t see the vessels down below where my artifacts are. They conclude that five days out I am still having a “severe reaction” to the steroid and maybe the Celebrex, but not likely the Celebrex. I point out that I have been on steroids three or four times before without this reaction. They suggest maybe they were different ones. I go home and check, I have been on Dexamethason before, at a much higher dose.

I ask them if there is any way this could have anything to do with my neck and they assure me that there is no possibility of that. They say the nerve that goes to the inner ear doesn’t even go through my neck. It is anatomically impossible they tell me. The headache could be, but not the dizziness. They refer me to a “hearing and balance clinic” and send me home with nothing to help relieve the dizziness.

Finally after begging the lady that answers the phone at my ortho’s office she finally gets me an appointment with my ortho’s assistant. I get in there ten days out from finishing the steroid, twelve days of dizzy. I’m told by the assistant “Sir, we don’t deal with this here. We do back surgeries here. Take another week off of work. This is just a reaction to the steroid.” I ask him if numbness in my feet and hands are caused by steroids, what about headaches for almost a year, what about chills in my head and everywhere. He finally says let’s refer you to a neurologist. And while I’m standing there, holding onto the counter so I don’t fall over, waiting for checkout my ortho doc walks by and looks surprised and says “what’s going on here”. So this is the first he’s heard of it. So a doctor prescribes a medicine, I have what has been called by my primary care and two ER doctors a “severe reaction” to it and after several calls into his office, this is the first he has heard of it. He simply agrees that I need to go see a neurosurgeon and says “that is an unusual reaction to a steroid.”

My symptoms are worsening. Both of my feet are constantly tingling now. It used to only last a few minutes. Now it seems here to stay. The dizziness gets brought on with neck movement such as a car ride. Lying down in bed for hours will calm it down. Sitting at a computer for a long period of time brings it on. I’m getting dizzy about now from typing this. I’m simply waiting now to go see a neurologist and a hearing and balance center. This is because I’m told the two couldn’t possibly have anything to do with each other. The neurologist isn’t even scheduled yet and the balance center can’t see me for over a week. I can’t drive a car and wonder how I can work. I’ve only worked two half days in the past two weeks. I don’t know what I’ll do after this weekend. I’ve tried going three days without Celebrex and still get dizzy.

Now do you want to hear my theory? How about low blood flow to the brain? Let me explain. I think the ADR is flexing too much. My new ortho has never taken a flexion x-ray. That’s one from the side with my head bent all the way forward or all the way back. The previous one had and I saw it. My neck bends like a 90 degree pipe elbow. Ok, I may be exaggerating a little. Let’s just say it gave me nightmares for days after seeing it. He said “that looks normal” and my jaw dropped to the floor.

I think it bend so much that it puts pressure in not only my spinal column but also blood vessels. This causes headaches, trouble concentrating, and dulled vision and hearing. Why did it become more acute and add dizziness when on the steroid? This is because the steroid reduces blood flow in smaller blood vessels which enhanced the problem. I’m no doc but this is what I got from googling and finding “cervical vertigo” and reading about Dexamethason. I don’t like self-diagnosing with google, but what are you going to do after going to so many doctors with no answers?

I tested this theory yesterday by wearing my neck brace when I was up and about. No dizzy - just headache. I’ll go without today to see if the dizzy comes back.

What I’ve learned is that I should have gotten into a neurologist much sooner. Furthermore I need to describe all of my symptoms, every one, even the little ones when I’m talking to a doctor. I have so many that I usually just go in and point out the most major. For example I’ll go in and just say “I’m dizzy.” I need to say “I’m dizzy, having difficulty concentrating, with blurred vision and hearing.” That, along with all my neurological symptoms.
__________________
Summer 2004 or 2005 – jumped backward off of a trailer onto driveway and felt a snap in my lower back
July 2009 – Discectomy at L5-S1
November 2010 – Arm pain started
May 2nd 2011 – Fusion at C7-T1, prodisc ADR at C6-C7
Present – Headache since May 2nd. Dizzy spells with trouble concentrating and blurred vision and hearing. Mid-back pain that radiates into my chest, neck soreness, numb extremities. Cold chills throughout body.
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  #16  
Old 03-30-2012, 01:19 PM
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Douglas Douglas is offline
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I've debated long and hard about telling you all this. There is a MAJOR part of my story that I have been leaving out.

I went into the Operating Room to have C6-C7 fused. They woke me up and said "oops. We accidentally fused C7-T1." But they had a present for me. Four hours later I rolled back into the O.R. and received an artificial disc at C6-C7. They had removed the only healthy disc in my neck.

I have left this out because the first thing everyone asks me is "are you going to sue?" I do not wish to discuss that. My number one focus is to get better. Please don't ask me about it, I will not answer. Do not ask me if, who, or where.

I'm sorry for not mentioning it sooner. I did not mean to deceive anyone. I just want the focus to be on what is now wrong with me. Going back and reading my first post I can see where I had it in there but I edited it out and didn't do a good job of it.
__________________
Summer 2004 or 2005 – jumped backward off of a trailer onto driveway and felt a snap in my lower back
July 2009 – Discectomy at L5-S1
November 2010 – Arm pain started
May 2nd 2011 – Fusion at C7-T1, prodisc ADR at C6-C7
Present – Headache since May 2nd. Dizzy spells with trouble concentrating and blurred vision and hearing. Mid-back pain that radiates into my chest, neck soreness, numb extremities. Cold chills throughout body.
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  #17  
Old 03-30-2012, 01:50 PM
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Douglas Douglas is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by laid up doc View Post
i'm just going to say this once - focus your efforts on whether the device is in right, whether there were other unidentified pain generators, and what you can do moving forward. the prodisc has worked well in many, many people. all of you signed informed consent prior to having surgery.

to dwell on the disc, imho, is a waste of energy and will only make you feel worse. there is a HUGE mind-body connection that is not well understood, but well known by medical professionals. focus on moving forward and you will find you have spent your energy in a more productive fashion.
laid up doc - I have taken your advice to heart. By the way - my ADR has been verified to be installed correctly with a 2nd opinion. Whether the device is a good device is a subject that is well debated elsewhere on ADRSupport.org. Here is what I think my unique problem with the ProDisc ADR is:

The thoracic spine does not move. The rib cage prevents it. My thoracic and cervical spine have literally been fused together. My C7 vertebrae is like a tree stump poking out of the top of my neck. The ADR on top of that is being over worked.

My Orthopedic surgeon, the 2nd one, has commented that it is very unusual for my fusion to not be complete after 11 months at my age of 38. Is this because it is under stress? Transferring this stress up into the ADR? Does this explain the pain between my shoulders?

Is the ADR flexing so extreme that it is not only touching my spinal cord but also restricting blood flow to my brain causing headaches, difficulty concentrating, dizzy spells with blurred vision and impaired hearing? Exasperated when put on a steroid?

Maybe the ProDisc can't handle this configuration. It has nothing to limit its movement other than my anatomy as far as I can tell. Other discs look like a car's front end C-Joint with a boot and seem to have mechanism to limit the deflection in my opinion.

PS - I don't know which version of the ProDisc I received.
__________________
Summer 2004 or 2005 – jumped backward off of a trailer onto driveway and felt a snap in my lower back
July 2009 – Discectomy at L5-S1
November 2010 – Arm pain started
May 2nd 2011 – Fusion at C7-T1, prodisc ADR at C6-C7
Present – Headache since May 2nd. Dizzy spells with trouble concentrating and blurred vision and hearing. Mid-back pain that radiates into my chest, neck soreness, numb extremities. Cold chills throughout body.
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  #18  
Old 11-05-2015, 07:50 PM
cmdraft cmdraft is offline
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Join Date: Aug 2015
Posts: 8
Default "Clicking" Sound Mobi-C

Hello everyone, my name is Charlie. My Mobi-C disc started "clicking" when I move my head a certain way five weeks after surgery. Sometimes I'll have pain and I can move my neck to where it "pops" and I feel a release. My recent x-rays look good with no disc migration but my neck is sore by the end of the day every day and I'm wondering if anyone else has experienced this.
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My name is Charlie, I'm 46, and I started having neck pain around 2009. After years of conservative treatment the pain became extreme and inescapable Feb. of this year. I tried everyting and it just got worse. An MRI in June revealed a disc failure (bulge) with pressure on the thecal sac and severe right neural foraminal narrowing. I had bone on bone at C6-7 and the doctor recommended a fusion or ADR. The Mobi-C device was implanted on 8/10/15 and I was back to work on 8/14/15.
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  #19  
Old 01-02-2016, 06:28 AM
sadr sadr is offline
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had 5-6 6-7 done in Germany
money done properly residuals matter left bt the doctor at the surgery

doctor evaded me for months till i send a clear massage

all doctors that inspected after were firm that fusion was the right way and excution of adr was extremely poor
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