Looking for help Cervical problems

[ANDREW]

Thank you all for your comments and opinions,. In answer to what may have happened in my life to get me here, well there was this head on collision at highway speeds about 30+ years ago, and a second car collision which ended in a car rollover, did not have my seatbelt on, I know I know...... Was a wrestler in school days and about 3 years ago was wrestling for fun, so I thought and was picked up and dropped on my head upside down, that was another stupid story. So here I am now, 4 bad disc 2 compressing the spinal cord. Update dealing with Dr Robert Jackson in Ca and he said I am a good candidate for c56 fusion and c45 prodisc c, or I go to UK with Boree for poss same hybrid 1 fusion & 1 m6c or poss 2 m6c if I do a CT scan here and the facet joints look ok, if they don't he says to fuse also that level. Any opinions re: Pro Disc C, ( poss. partial insurance coverage)here in the states or the M6C in the UK( no insurance coverage at all) another concern is insurance may not cover me when I come home from UK. Any thoughts are helpful (Blue Shield)

[Justin]

Hi Andrew,

You have been through a lot. Unfortunately, you are in a tough place where many of us have been before (insurance coverage vs. no coverage). Before you jump in to committing to a procedure, have you had your facet joints "worked-up?" Meaning have they been ruled in or ruled out as pain generators in your case via diagnostic injections (even if they "look good on CT or MRI"). This is definitely something to look into before having surgery.

Also, the cervical spine has a good track record (via peer-reviewed literature) regarding artificial disc replacement. With that said, the decision to have a hybrid procedure (in your situation: one artificial disc and a one-level fusion) in the US or overseas largely lies in your hands. Some questions to think over: can you afford the out-of-pocket expenses to go overseas for surgery? As you mentioned, who will do your stateside follow-up if you have surgery overseas (many surgeons don't want to follow cases in which they were not the primary surgeon on the case)?

The debate between different artificial disc replacement devices will forever continue. At the very least, the factors that I believe are important and that the literature demonstrates as better outcomes post-operatively is 1) proper patient selection, 2) surgical experience and 3) placement of the device(s).

Feel free to "pick our brains" and ask us anything that's on your mind--most of us have been in your shoes and there are a lot of questions pre-op that we can (hopefully) help answer. I wish you the very best.