Fast sugery date with Dr Bertagnoli

[steve55]

Thanks for the well wishes everybody. Well, as mark said I finally turned the corner and was able to fly back home. But prior to that, I couldnt hardly go walk anywhere(like going to eat) without having really bad pain. It was agony just sitting at the dinner table with my friend. Even the smallest head movements could send pinched nerve sensations through my neck. I spent a week just laying in bed day and night. I could not sleep for more than an hour or two at a time so I just got whatever sleep I could get in small doses. But overall It wasnt too bad I guess. Odd thing was that I was feeling much better upon hosiptal discharge than what I felt later in the week at the hotel.

Nevertheless, this post op pain I have been having is only from the shoulders on up, due to muscle stretching that occurs during surgery. The old pain between my shoulder blades and my below the waste symptoms are all gone!! I could feel that from day one after surgery. These stupid US doctors dont seem to know squat! Im still aggravated and frustrated that they dropped the ball on my below the waste symptoms. They said it was "IMPOSSIBLE" that my below the waste symptoms were related to my cervical spine issues because the spinal cord doesnt go down that far. Ya see, I got several second opinions from 2 top surgeons , one orthopedic and the other a neurologist. One sent me to a urologist for gods sake, I knew it was a waste of time but I did it anyways just to prove to him it wasnt anything related to a seperate urology issue. However, to his credit, Dr Ziglar was the only "US" one who said it was a possibility". Of course, as I suspsected, Dr Bertagnoli said it was not uncommon to have cervical patients have below the waste symptoms and he expected ot to clear up with this surgery. And it did. These US doctors still have a long ways to to go to get to the level of EXPERTISE of the german doctors.

ANyways, back to my surgery,........

My 3 level surgery should have taken about 3 hours but Dr B says it took 6 hours because my case was "technically complilcated and challenging". Dr B said" We had to do alot of remodeling and restructuring". He went on to explain that he checks every single nerve at each level to make sure there are no other compressions occuring. In my case it sounds like finding all the nerves was a bit tough and then he had to further decompress some of the nerves ,....I guess that besides the bulging discs, I probably had bone spurs and other structures that were pressuring my nerves that he had to "restructure" to uncompress them. I do recall that I had some stenosis mentioned in my MRI reports, so yea, maybe he cut away some bony out growths or stuff like that. He sure went all the way for me by doing a 6 hour surgery. I looked him in the eye and gave him a heart felt "Thank you" for spending all that time on getting me done right, to which he replied "it was my pleasure". Ive heard (though dont know if its true or not) that not all doctors will do that, many will just put in the discs and not get too involved in looking for or cleaning up other issues as there are other patients waiting for the surgery room after yours is done.

If I had done the 2 level here in the US with Dr Ziglar, I bet we'd have never discovered the 3rd faulty level. Dr Zig was just going off the discogram and saw that only 2 levels were causing pain. However Dr B came into my room 1 day preop and discussed his suspicions about the 3rd level possibly being bad. He asked me how I felt about doing the 3rd level if it looks bad once he is in there. I told him to go for it, and that his decision making on ths issue is better than mine. So, he did a discogram while he had me cut open and he witnessed the dye material was leaking into the spinal channel!! So, Im glad I got all 3 done after all. I really love dr B's approach. He visited at least 3 times in my patient room. It was real nice to be laying in the hospital bed watching TV and to have him just swing on by from time to time discussing things with me. Of course, the final meeting was more formal in his office and we had our picture taken together and he asked me if I was interested in serving as a reference for other patients which I am very happy to do. As we got up to leave, he again restated how much he is worried for patients who are getting multi level fusions here in the US. He seems to think that the risk of fusion gets exceedingly riskier the more levels that get done. The risk, of course, is needing more fusions done in the future due to a cascading effect of a stiff fused spine.

So, bottom line is that I am 100% "Old" pain free!! Just dealing with the surgical pain of course. Dr B is a incredible person!! I chose him based on the fact that 99.9% of the patients who posted having surgery with him all came out great.I didnt see as high of a success rate with US doctors ADR's. Plus, the fact he has done more multi level surgeries than any other doctor in the world played a part in my decision also My next step is to prepare for going to war with Aetna. Ill beposting for help from you guys on that later. (i.e. people sending me proof of their insurane co approving their multi level ADR)

Ill post my X ray showing the 3 discs (and the new keel arrangmenet of the prodisc NOva clearly shows) once I get my computer back from my friend in the next few days). Or Maybe Ill send it to mark to post for me or in my signature avatar or whatever.

[trkdoc714]

Steve,

Congratulations on your "new neck"!!! I'm sure you've already gotten this but I'll run it past you anyway. Aetna's Clinical Policy Bulletin for ADR is numbered 0591. You can find the 18 page document on their site aetna dot com and use their search engine for clinical policy bulletins by number.

I had to get my HR department involved in getting approval for ADR surgery at Stenum. They relented to "out of netwok" coverage of 50%. Hopefully you'll get better results as far as percentages go.

I certainly hope your battle with them is much less taxing than the one you fought with the US medical community.

Bob

[dshobbies]

Steve,

Sounds like you're doing great. Glad Dr. B discovered that 3rd level. Right about now I'm wishing he had done my 4th.

Anyway, it's still pretty early in your recovery and any residual pain should subside with time.

Good luck with insurance!

Dale

[Terry Allen Blackburn]

Steve:

Your surgery sounds fascinating. What an amazing miracle of modern medicine. He sounds like a wonderful surgeon who goes the extra mile for his patients. I hope your recovery goes well. Take it slow and enjoy the new lease on life.

Terry Newton

[Cheryl]

Steve,

SO glad to hear your "old pain" is gone. That should help you get through the recovery processs. I hope you see a light at the end of the tunnel.

Best of luck.

I'll be reading your story as we have recently switched to Aetna and I have cervical pain.

Thanks for sharing.

Cheryl

[mmglobal]

Greetings from Lake Minnitonka, MN! Steve asked me to post this...

3-level ProDisc-C Nova:

[Kathy]

That is so cool to see how ADR looks implanted. I am still in awe everytime I see an x-ray. I can't believe that I will soon have my own. How is Steve doing?