Hello finally introducing myself. (Preparing for Spinal Fusion)

[Metalneck07]

Hello I have been visiting this site for some time but had not introduced myself.I'm a stay at home mom of five.I live in the North Georgia Mountains.I have been a Spine patient for almost 4 yrs. but have had back issues since my teenage yrs.In '07 I had Cervical Fusion on C5-6 after trying all the conservative methods and just couldn't take the pain and numbness and arm pain . I did my research and decided on a surgeon that I felt was qualified for the surgery.It wasn't easy getting thru the surgery but that was just the begining of my troubles.My doctor's practive closed shortly after my surgery.I then found out that I had screws that we're backing out and with time my fusion never took place.It took me 3 long years of pain and countless doctors and trips thru out the US to finally get a doctor to repair the damage. '09 I had Revision surgery 3 screws backed out, tons of damaging connective tissue and fluid build up where the fusion should have happened. It was a mess but as of last week my Fusion is solid and my screws are snug.:thumpup:
Over the last 4 yrs as well my Lumbar has become more and more an issue.Though I have been trying to live with it because I knew my Cervical issues we're priority. I have tried all conservative methods once again. Diskogram has identified L4-5 and L5-s1 as the problem. I had a consultation last week with my Cervical Surgeon's colleague on possible ADR surgery. I'm a candidate for ADR at 4-5 and Fusion at 5-S1.My insurance will cover it they are one of the few that do. I'm now just trying to do the research and talk to as many people who had a similar surgery. I trust the surgeon completely he is in Texas and was the 1st surgeon here in the states to preform ADR and is known to be the best. I just want to make sure I have done my work and be educated on what's at hand.
I'm thankful for having a place to talk to other spineys and read up on all the blogs. Sorry for the long inroduction. Thanks for having me aboard.

[Justin]

Metalneck,

Welcome to the Spine Patient Society.

You've had quite a surgical history. We are glad you are here and we are here to support you. It's great to read that your insurance company is covering your surgery!

There are many Spine Patients here that have had successful hybrid (Fusion & Artificial Disc Replacement) surgeries.

Keep us posted as you move forward with your journey.

[Metalneck07]

Hi Justin
Thank you for the nice welcome. I see on your signature that you have had ADR at L4-5 and L5-S1.
Was this a trial ? Or did Insurance cover this ? My surgeon said I would qualify as a patient for
ADR at both levels but at this time Insurance was not covering two levels only one. I want to make the
right decision.And would love some feedback from both sides ADR and Fusion at L5-S1.Thanks again
and look foward to hearing more on this topic.

[Justin]

Hi Justin
Thank you for the nice welcome. I see on your signature that you have had ADR at L4-5 and L5-S1.
Was this a trial ? Or did Insurance cover this ? My surgeon said I would qualify as a patient for
ADR at both levels but at this time Insurance was not covering two levels only one. I want to make the
right decision.And would love some feedback from both sides ADR and Fusion at L5-S1.Thanks again
and look foward to hearing more on this topic.

My artificial disc replacement surgery was in November 2003. I had the procedure in Germany and it was not covered by insurance.

[Greg]

to the site "Metalneck" ....I love the name

Thats sucks that during your horrific battle with your cervical spine your lumbar starting going out too. I too had issues at L4-S1 and wanted the same hybrid you are getting but my insurance wouldnt cover ADR. I've got some questions to try and get a better idea of your situation and to know more about you. Updating your signature would save a lot of repetitive questions about your condition. What insurance do you have? What is your diagnosis. Who is the surgeon in Texas you are interested in doing your operation? Do you have a surgery date yet? That is awesome you can get your insurance to pay for ADR. Even though you are a candidate for 2 levels the L5/S1 level is probably (in my opinion) the best level for fusion as there is almost no movement at that level so getting ADR for its motion preservation feature is not completely necessary and you probably wont get any better results with ADR than Fusion....again, just my opinion. I just had 2 level ALIF L4-S1 and couldnt be happier and dont feel like I've lost any mobility.

I wish I had the operation you are getting but I have no regrets with my decision as I was 100% confident and have confirmed that I made the right choice. You seem like you've got a good head on your shoulders and doing all the right things; multiple opinions, research, shopping for the right doctor, talking to others who have had your operation, tried all conservative treatment and NOT RUSHING INTO IT. One bit of advice I can off if you go through your anticapated procedure is having your doctor get you (if he didnt plan to already) an Orthofix Lumbar Spinal Growth Stimulator. Spinal-Stim for spinal fusion is a noninvasive electromagnetic bone growth stimulator

This device worn for 2 hours a day will almost garauntee a solid fusion in 3-4 months and they have all the statistics and studies to prove it. It's amazing how well it works. Let me know if you want to know more about it or anything at all. Nice to finally speak to you. Good luck!

[KBear]

Metalneck- Glad you introduced yourself, the people on here are great. As per the FB message earlier, I'm not entirely sure how the epidural with surgery works, but several on here have had it and will hopefully explain better than I did.
Katie on here did and she also has similar pain management issues like us. Typing on my phone, will write more later when I am at a computer.
Kathy

[New-disc]

,
.

.

[Metalneck07]

Hi Greg;
Thanks also for the warm welcome.Glad you like my nickname. It sort of stuck with me after my 2nd revision surgery my husband and I were going thru security at Atlanta and for some reason my neck sent it off.I got pulled out of line made to stand in a box with everyone starring at me I kept telling them I have a metalneck and my husband was cracking up at me.So family started calling me Metalneck.haha right ??
I have updated my signature hopefully it will work when I finish this thread.To answer your questions I have Aetna for Health Ins.My diagnosis is DDD L4-5 and L5S-1,annular tear,facet hypertrophy,ligamentum flavum hypertrophy,disk bulge L4-5andL5-S1,narrowing of L4-5 andL5S-1 intervertebral space.So there you have it .
I know it could be worse and hopefully there's a way to solve it.I wasn't sure you could list the doctor other sites don't allow this but since your asking you must know they allow it.My Revision surgeon was Dr. Lieberman he has recently transferred to TBI he wanted me to meet his colleague Dr. Blumenthal since he is an expert at ADR surgeries. I have met him I like him alot and I know Dr. Lierberman would not steer me wrong.I have not yet set a date only because my husband's schedule at work is horrible he works out of states and is gone long periods.I know I probaly should be getting the whole thing rolling soon in case there are any delays and to be honest I'm at my wits end!!! I just want to move on with my life and get back to a more normal me. I know I will never be completely normal but that's ok as long as I'm not in the pain that I have now.
I have used a Spinal Growth Stimulator with my 1st surgery on my Cervical . I used it religously every day but my neck never fused. But I'm not all saying that the growth stimulator doesn't work I had 3 screws that backed out almost immediately after surgery with that much movement it was almost impossible to fuse even with the stimulator.I would definetly think it would be a good idea this time as well because I need everything to help the situation.
I'm glad to hear you are doing so well with your Fusion.It's good to know just in case to have a back up plan that fusion is also a way out of this pain.
Well thanks again for the welcome.Hope this wasn't to lengthy.I look foward to the correspondence on here ,it's great
to be surrounded by people who really understand you!!

[Metalneck07]

Hi Kathy;
Thanks again for encouraging me to join the group. I wish I had back when I had my 1st surgery on
my Cervical.I would read the info but never joined in.Look foward to seeing you on here and
thanks again. Caitlin

[Greg]

Hi Greg;
Thanks also for the warm welcome.Glad you like my nickname. It sort of stuck with me after my 2nd revision surgery my husband and I were going thru security at Atlanta and for some reason my neck sent it off.I got pulled out of line made to stand in a box with everyone starring at me I kept telling them I have a metalneck and my husband was cracking up at me.So family started calling me Metalneck.haha right ??
I have updated my signature hopefully it will work when I finish this thread.To answer your questions I have Aetna for Health Ins.My diagnosis is DDD L4-5 and L5S-1,annular tear,facet hypertrophy,ligamentum flavum hypertrophy,disk bulge L4-5andL5-S1,narrowing of L4-5 andL5S-1 intervertebral space.So there you have it .
I know it could be worse and hopefully there's a way to solve it.I wasn't sure you could list the doctor other sites don't allow this but since your asking you must know they allow it.My Revision surgeon was Dr. Lieberman he has recently transferred to TBI he wanted me to meet his colleague Dr. Blumenthal since he is an expert at ADR surgeries. I have met him I like him alot and I know Dr. Lierberman would not steer me wrong.I have not yet set a date only because my husband's schedule at work is horrible he works out of states and is gone long periods.I know I probaly should be getting the whole thing rolling soon in case there are any delays and to be honest I'm at my wits end!!! I just want to move on with my life and get back to a more normal me. I know I will never be completely normal but that's ok as long as I'm not in the pain that I have now.
I have used a Spinal Growth Stimulator with my 1st surgery on my Cervical . I used it religously every day but my neck never fused. But I'm not all saying that the growth stimulator doesn't work I had 3 screws that backed out almost immediately after surgery with that much movement it was almost impossible to fuse even with the stimulator.I would definetly think it would be a good idea this time as well because I need everything to help the situation.
I'm glad to hear you are doing so well with your Fusion.It's good to know just in case to have a back up plan that fusion is also a way out of this pain.
Well thanks again for the welcome.Hope this wasn't to lengthy.I look foward to the correspondence on here ,it's great
to be surrounded by people who really understand you!!

First off, your post is not even in the realm of a long posts I have had posts so sling I had to sut them short because of the 10,000 character limit which runs up to be around 3,500 words Long or short just keep them coming as the more you talk the more we can help and others can be helped from your experience. Did your doctor give you a medical device implant card for your hardware in your neck to be used at metal detectors??? Oh, lemme guess....he skipped town before that could happen. Did you get some decent advance notice about his departure or did it seem like everything happened real quick? Maybe he screwed up someone else bad or knew some bad stuff towards him was coming down the pipeline and decided to go on the run I was given a metal device implany card to show to metal detectors

That is just SOOO freakin awesome that AETNA is paying for artificial discs I'm not even going to get into insurance and ADR but to make that part short; BCBS' criteria to approve a new procedure is that if it (ADR) is not superior (greater) to the standard (Fusion) and is at least non-inferior (not worse) then there must be some other value-added benefit to make it worth while and approvable....less chance of risks/complications, shorter recovery, greater chance of success or my favorit it freakin cost less and no know the insurance companies motives are driven by money. So for ADR to actually be superior (barely) to fusion and but they dont consider it becuase it isnt significantly greater (in all aspects) but they do consider it to be not worse and equal to fusion then it needs that value added benefit to be approved. Well a fusion can run you up to $100,000 while ADR can average around $35,000. So fusion is 65% cheaper and in many cases you heal quicker and have a lot less risk of future surgeries depending on well everything. Just driven by money alone I cant understand why insurances wont easily pay for it. My theory is that they dont want to be proved wrong because most insurances do pay for it but usually only through appeals where you......you guessed it.....PROVED THEM THEY WERE WRONG!

Ok....I said I wasnt going to get into this so I'm sorry I stretched the truth there and we can get back to you. I do hope once you go through with this procedure (or maybe sometime when you get a chance) you can put a post in the Health Insurance section telling everyone what they approved you for. Thats always the biggest question and I know people that are willing to buy a new insurance policy that will cover ADR (if they dont get denied....but if you do create a group plan through work and they cannot deny you then...just a little tip) wait a year because of the pre-exisiting condition; if you get a new insurance and they find your pre-existing condition your not completely screwed, you just have to wait a year before they will pay for anything. Then after that year they can get the ADR. If I could have gotten enough medicine to make you comfortable for waiting a year I would have done this to get the hybrid instead of fusion but I dont even like thinking about having to take pills for a few more months...hopefully no longer....and my condition was too far gone to wait. Hell if I had waited until January 1st my new work benefits' short term disability would have covered 100% of my salary and I could have taken up to 6 months off WITH PAY to properly recover. Right now its only 60% which wasnt enough so I used all my PTO time I've saved over the last 2 years (I dont ever have time for vacations) and been working from home for 1 more week and then after 6 weeks I will return to work ....I Just didnt have the option to wait though.

That sucks the bone growth stimulator didnt work for you but you are absolutely right, without complete constant immobilization of the spine they are not going to grow together. They even did a study on the device I used on a couple hundred folks that at 5 years post-op for fusion had not fused...."NonUnion" Then they wore the device and magically 70% of those folks had all of a sudden fused. So I believe 100% in its ability to work and hope you give it another shot. You will deifinitely be in good hands down at TBI. They seem to be a very popular place (and their surgeons) on this site as they are spoken very highly of and a lot of folks here have gone there for their surgery.

I wasn't sure you could list the doctor other sites don't allow this but since your asking you must know they allow it.My Revision surgeon was Dr. Lieberman he has recently transferred to TBI he wanted me to meet his colleague Dr. Blumenthal since he is an expert at ADR surgeries. I have met him I like him alot and I know Dr. Lierberman would not steer me wrong.I have not yet set a date only because my husband's schedule at work is horrible he works out of states and is gone long periods.I know I probaly should be getting the whole thing rolling soon in case there are any delays and to be honest I'm at my wits end!!! I just want to move on with my life and get back to a more normal me. I know I will never be completely normal but that's ok as long as I'm not in the pain that I have now.

I think I know of which sites you are talking about....no need to cough names though....but this site is not affiliated with any doctors, manufacturers, business' and does not promote any docotors or offices or shun against speaking about who did what whether it was the best time ever or the worst experience that ever happened. Feel free to say whatever it is that is on your mind....just try to follow some morals and ethics as no one is going to gang up on or bash on you for complaining about a doctor. Knowledge is power and it is one thing we (members) stress so much to spine patients. Become an expert on your condition and treatments and research the hell out of your surgeon because 2 people, same problems, same surgery but different surgeons can have completely different results. A surgeons knowledge and experience can make the world of difference in your operation working and the recovery you have to go through. I dont know the doctor you speak of but have heard so many good things about TBI and am sure you are in good hands. So say whatever you want to because this is one place where you will not be treated differently because you didnt like Dr X since he screwed you (no pun intended) with a failed surgery and left town on you.

Doing the hybrid is a great procedure especially since you have the fusion as an alternative in case the doctors dont get a warm and fuzzy feeling about putting in an ADR. My doc told me I was the easiest fusion he ever did (the skinnier you are the easier it is to get access to the spine (anterior) and they can do a better job because of it. He told me that my surgery was also the best one he ever did and I just saw films last tuesday (which I'm trying to get to work to scan and share with you all) and I couldnt believe how well he positioned L4-S1 to have the exact and perfect natural curve to them there supposed to. He also toned down a good bit of my snake-like scoliosis...added benefit of fusion...so I am thrilled and tickled to pieces.

OK...so this is one that is getting close to a long post. Thats my problem, I am too long winded and end up spending hours typing replies. I do it so much I just started a blog to detail my story which was a ridiculously crazy one where you'll look at it and say I dont know how he had the strength and will power to keep going after all that and didnt kill himself. I've wanted to but I dont know too many chronic back pain patients that havent thought about it. Of course were all too much of a chicken **** to do it and have too much love for our friends and family (that sums up what the SPS is...Friends & Family) to leave them hanging like that.

I want to say more but it's 2 am and Joanna is going to divorce me before we even get married if I dont get in that bed soon. Talk to you later and send me a PM if you ever want to talk about the surgery, fusion, adr, depression, gas prices, politics, ANYTHING, I think you get the point now. My door is always open and I have a lot of experience with back pain and all that other fun stuff. Plus I like meeting new friends. Talk to you soon (hopefully)