help to decide for revision to take adr prestige out and replace

[sandy]

I need help to decide what to do, i had adr prsetige put in august 2010 for c4- c5 for mylopathy was told by doctor, problems ever since, I had blood test done july 2011, i have reaction to nickel titanium and iron, nickel and iron are in the prestige cervical st , i had faxed over to 2 doctors by me they called me back and wanted consult, I also sent off in mail to doctor pimenta for another consult, now one doctor i consulted today said he can remove this and use biodegradable from medtronic also he feels my pain is comeing from bulge at C5 C6 , we tryed to do another mri second one but the radiologist terminated because the metal was distorting too much, i tryed to have ct scan and that even had problem at the site and below to distorted, i asked the doctor know what do we do , he said the only thing is to do the surgery to be sure and make sure i have no problems with c4 c5 c5 c6, he said there is no guarentee i will be free of this chronic pain and i had seen alot of doctors ,have I been to a psychiatrist, i said well yes i have had chronic pain for a year now and nobody is fixing this and i cant get answers, the physc told me chronic pain leads to depression anxiety and i am not going insane, i wanted to say if someone was doing their job right i would not have pain but i didnt, i mentioned to the doctor the pain doctor wants to do cervical radiofrequency neurotomy the doctor said thats ok to do before if i choose to do this before surgery anythings better then surgery, i said but that wont help my reaction allergy to metal just may help the pain go away, he replies yes and if pain goes away you wont need to have surgery, this did not make sense , do i leave the metal thats causeing a reaction inside my spine? The doctor said he will do the surgery but said that he has no guarantee i will be pain free there willl be more scare tissue and i may have nerve damage. Anyone please tell me if they had this cervical radiofrequency neruotomy done and did it help, Anyone have allergy to the metal that was used in there adr surgery have to have replaced later due to problems, anyone have adr and could not get mris or ct scans because metal distorts the picture and radiologist can not read? THey want updated picture of neck and i can not get it my last mri before surgery was feb 2010 and they tell me its to old, but now they send to have one i can not get one because of metal in neck, has anyone else had this problem with metal in there neck mris and cts can not read because metal? Im very confused to all this run around?

should i get the cervical radiofrequency neruotomy done to help stop the pain while im waiting to have surgery to go through its process of getting the ok from insurance and the haveing to get blood chest xrays you name it before surgery , then have surgery to remove the adr c4 c5 and replace this with c4 c5 c5 c6 fusion with plastic biodegradeable , because pain doctor specialty is to help stop pain, and ortho doctor specialty is to do surgery, this is like which came first chicken or the egg.

I am hopeing dr pimenta can email back i sent off my cds and letter 1 1/2 weeks ago now hopeing i hear from him what his thoughts are.

And my second mri i was told by pain doctor to go to closed mri and 1.5 greater magnet and did so and did not work, the lady at radiologist mri told me they do make a 3.0 greater mri but she said highly unlikely it would even be able to get a good picture.

Im so tired i can not think anymore i hope this makes sense to someone for help out there..

[Katie]

Oh Sandy, I'm sorry for all the confusion you are feeling right now. It doesn't make sense to me to leave that ADR in, what with the symptoms you have. There was a member here who had an ADR removed after having severe allergy symptoms, but it was several years ago, and I think she was from England. I'll try going through my emails to find more information on her. I can't remember if someone described her situation to me, or if she contacted me directly. But she was the one who convinced me to have my metal allergy testing done before surgery, for which I am forever grateful.

Can you get more information about the 'biodegradable from Medtronic' ?? It's not something I'm familiar with at all and am curious. I don't know if it is possible to put in another type of ADR instead of having to fuse after removing the first one. Have you checked into the NeoDisc yet? It may have received approval in the US by now...it finished trials a little while ago, I think. It doesn't involve putting large keels into your vertebrae. The one you have in now is very different as well...it is just held in by screws on the back, is that right?

If you don't receive an answer from Dr. P soon, press him again. I would want his opinion before going ahead with any revision at this point. Having a top notch surgeon for a revision is very important, IMHO.

I'll try to touch base with you tomorrow and we can toss around some more ideas if that works for you.

[Cindylou]

Sandy, the cervical radio-frequency neurotomy that you speak of is the same procedure as cervical radio-frequency rhizotomy, which I have had done several times. I had to check to be sure, but it is. The terms are used interchangeably. I don't really have any knowledge base for your allergy to metal issues, but I can just say that the few times (about once a year) that I have had the cervical radio-frequency rhizotomy performed, it has given be significant relief for long periods of time. And it sounds like that is what your doctor is offering you: to consider having it performed, as an interim plan of action, to see if it will reduce your pain, while you research what your best long-term goals/procedures are for this probable metal allergy. Make sense? Good luck! Cindylou