Stenum - My story

[Joe56]

I did speak with someone at Stenum and brought up these issues, first, nerve pain; it seems the nerves don't always respond or recover quickly and sometimes never do, each persons situation is unique. Too much decompression may be as risky as too little. I spoke with several cervical ADR patients and the results vary. The key seems to be don't rush to conclusions or second surgeries, give it time. Regarding the number of surgeries done at Stenum in one day. They tell me that there are other surgeons involved in the process, while Ritter-Lang is the surgeon that does the implant, a vascular surgeon is always involved and their cheif of surgery may also scrub in, They may do most of the access and closing, and Ritter-Lang may only do the implant process. His experience, thousands of ADR procedures, combined wirh an improved implantation process he was involved in developing, has shortened the ADR process, reduced blood loss and improved overall success. Still researching but this M6 looks like the best option.

[cp7959]

Thanks everyone for the support.

Maria - Do you still if have nerve pain from 2nd surgery. If not how long till it resolved.

Rob - Micro surgery is a very viable option if need be. The struggle will be the time it takes to identify the source of my irritation. Is it one level or two, left side or right, or is it complete inflammation from the disks themselves.

JKD - I have the M6

Steve - I guess I could look into removing and reinstalling ADR's if it came to that. Then you have all kinds of insurance issues. I could go to Stenum, but it wouldn't be something I would look into at this point. My gut feeling right now is if the disks have to come out, I should probably fuse, the joints may become painful.

Joe - I hope your right and time may resolve my problem.

Looks like your doing research for surgery, good luck and I hope the best for you.

[cp7959]

Joe,

In your research talking to other patients did you find nerve related problems? If so did they resolve and what kind of time did it take?

[JKDE302]

My mom had sent my MRI to stenum last week and I had already made up my mind that I want the M6 because of shock absorbtion...

Then I read this and now I dont want surgery anymore...

I even played basketball today for the first time in over a year and had a dunk in a game which is suprising because I just turned 30 years old...I have no nerve pain all the pain is in my neck because of stenosis or fibromyalgia...Thank you for posting I dont know what to do...I need to really think things over...I have manic energy for some reason today I think because I took some packet of pills my brother had called BSN Astro-Phex...

[Bill1961]

An improper decompression is one of the biggest issues with ADR surgery for success or failure. I'm not suggesting CP had an improper decompression. I just stating that if one wasn't performed it could be a problem.

JDK there are many successes and unfortunately to many failures regardless of where you get your surgery. If I where you I would get a local neurosurgeon opinion of what your problem is and their recommendation before I jump on a plane.

[New-disc]

CP,

The nerve going down my leg was compressed for 6-7 years before having surgery.

It took me over six months to feel the surgery was worth it.

(95% of my nerve pain is gone now)

I do still have flear ups from time to time.

Best of luck with your recovery!!

Todd

[fuzzy]

I am now 2 years post op lumbar surgery and it took this long for my leg pain to continually improve. This spring I had another strong relapse bout but I ramped my activity level way up this summer even at the risk of more problems with my neck and my nerve pain in my legs improved over last year. If the images show an improvement post surgery I would not rush to another surgery but give it time time time exercise activity give it time don't rush back to another surgery. Nerves take time to heal, years it seems. At least many months.

The only reason I myself now have another surgery is that I have waited years and my neck is getting steadily worse I have to take the risk. I do agree all the best surgeons have a risk. Even having read bad outcomes from Ritter Lang I would still consider to have him do a surgery as there is a reason they are still there. I do know for a fact that they have been trying to learn from past cases rather then simply go on no matter what the outcomes but to make improvements based on experience. I feel it is safe to go there unless you do have a difficult case then maybe worth to consider some one like Bertagnoli, Zeegers or even staying with a US doctor for easier or better follow up.

[Maria]

cp,
after my percutaneous discectomy that failed in '92 I had horrendous burning pain in my low back, glutes/piraformis area, quads, and calves and some burning in soles of feet tho the most intense pain was buttocks and legs and this was bilateral.

The pain was BRUTAL. It lasted nearly 5 years and started to fade. In '98 I started taking Neurontin (Gabapentin) 1800mg daily and have been on that dose since which helped greatly.

Right around '98 my low back started really caving on me and giving me horrible pain for which I had to stop working in 2000 as I was missing more work than attending and had long periods of bed ridden low back pain (4-8 weeks at a time).

Was offered a 3 level global fusion in 2001 and then various surgeries later on but it seems that sometime after starting pain medication and ESIs my pain became less pronounced and esp. the tailbone type of pain I would have seems to have pretty much vanished except with prolonged sitting.

It appears my L5S1 finally fused on it's own and I think that helped with much of my pain. Still have probs with L4 tho so all isn't completely good but I do feel the difference for the better most definately.

So it took a long time for nerve pain to calm down for me but back in the early '90's there wasn't much out there in terms of *working with it* or even investigating the pain generators/causes.

I wish you the best and not a prolonged course of pain like my own. I did however make my choices re not having several surgeries offered since 2001 including 2 level ADR and later ADR at L4 and fusion at L5S1.

Then again~ never say never re more spine surgery even tho one might wish that to be so.

[JKDE302]

Originally Posted by cp7959

My suggestion would be is to get the best surgeon possible and don't worry so much about the disk type. However if it's multi level and it's the Pro Disk with center keels, I would probably not go with that one.

I would also question getting more than 2 disks.

Good luck and pick your surgeon wiseley.

cp7959 you left this on Spinehealth.com what does that mean about keels?