Geoff's Blog - Alpha Kilinik L4/L5/S1

Firerescuefin · #1 (**permalink**) 10-07-2008, 10:47 AM

Well it's 4:45 in the morning and we are brewing coffee, feeding babies, and waiting for our dear Heather to come over and pick us up in about an hour. We will be traveling from Denver to DC...then on to Munich. We decided to get Logan his own seat...don't think we will be second guessing that decision any time soon. We are both in a haze as we were up about 2.5 hours ago getting packed and getting all last second preparations in place. Thanks again to everyone that has recorded their experiences and been so open with regard to what they have been through. Everyone I have ever asked has gladly given me their phone numbers and shared everything they could in order to give me better information, and to make the road a little easier to travel.

Geoff

Firerescuefin · #2 (**permalink**) 10-08-2008, 12:48 PM

I have read a few posts from Mark to not make your travel plans to tight. We decided to come a day early just in case something happened.....Well, we were supposed to fly through Dulles (DC) and get into Munich at 7 this morning.....We are at Nero's coffee shop in Heathrow (London), and it's 2 in the afternoon. We should arrive in Munich at 6 this evening. Enough said. We are exhausted. My wife and son are traveling like seaoned pro's. People were not really excited to see us get on the plane, but we received a couple of compliments as we got off regarding how good Logan was...just like his dad

...or not.

Firerescuefin · #3 (**permalink**) 10-08-2008, 06:57 PM

After countless hours of travel...we are here. Testing at Alphaklinik tomorrow at 9am. Our intial impression of Munich has been very positive. We're hitting the showers and getting out to get something to eat.

Cheryl · #4 (**permalink**) 10-08-2008, 09:55 PM

Glad you made it! Good luck with the testing.

Firerescuefin · #5 (**permalink**) 10-09-2008, 09:54 AM

I tried getting on the Alphaklink.com website last night...and it no longer existed. I googled alphaklinik and got the ATOS website. As Mark has documented, this has been in the works for some time. As we arrived this morning, they were still removing some of the ALPHA signage. Speaking to the staff, the transition seems to be pretty seamless. Their desire is to expand, remodel, and market more aggresively. Fortunately, there is still a "guy" here named Zeegers, they've got plenty of Activ L's in stock, and there are no plans for the power to be cut off during my surgery. We are still slamming chocolate cappucinos and OJ as we fight the sleep/jetlag monster. I am about 3/4 of the way through the testing, and will post something (test result) I found out of interest later on today.

It's suppose to be 70 deg. today. Not bad for a fall day in Munich.

Firerescuefin · #6 (**permalink**) 10-09-2008, 05:03 PM

That's how long you should plan to be a the clinic on your test day. Let's go over what you get.

Strength and Muscle Recruitment Test:
Test lumbar strength via Medx (very interesting and relevant - measures your strength curve and ROM against averages of healthy individuals of same age and weight, then graphs your information in relation to. As you can imagine most back pain sufferers don't score very well here.

Muscle Recruitment/Nerve test - Compares firing order of paraspinal muscles on both sides of spine. In healthy individual, they should fire together and overlap on graph. When the system is mechanically compromised, one will be taking up for the other or not working at all

Meet with generalist and perform basic physical, ultrasound, etc....basically do you meet the basic health requirements to get this done

Meet with Zeegers to go over films and tests - "Yep those sure are black thin and painful...corresponding with pain dermatome patterns"

Bone density test

Anesthesiologist

X-Ray to give them a good idea of prosthetic sizing

Neurologist - Looks at you with a new set of eyes and provides diagnosis....Zeegers stated that he likes to use him as an unbiased second opinion.

Final meeting with Zeegers..."We feel like we have an excellent diagnosis...see you in the morning"

Tests not given that could have been...MRI, Discogram (deemed uneccesary)

Checked in at 0830...Left for hotel at 1945 (745 PM)

Lesson learned. Pack a breakfast/lunch/dinner...or send someone to get you some.

The staff and the entire experience was great today. Yes, the day was long, but that's a lot to fit into one day. I spent 2 hours with Dr. Zeegers today and about another 1.5 hours on the phone before coming to Germany. Not only does his reputation precede him, but he is accessible and genuinely caring regarding his patients. My wife sat in on the visits. She likes him, and today has really confirmed in her own mind why we chose Zeegers and Alpha.

Surgery will be tomorrow at 11:30....Zeegers told me to get a good nights sleep...I told him it was his sleep that I was concerned about

chasswen · #7 (**permalink**) 10-09-2008, 06:30 PM

may the force be with you tomorrow.
all will be down hill from here out.
chuck

Firerescuefin · #8 (**permalink**) 10-10-2008, 07:36 PM

Well its, a little after 9:15 in the evening in Munich. I am laying in my room with my wife and son beside me. I will post more later on this evening, but the short story is that the discs I have now are much better than the ones they replaced. Zeegers words about those two discs after the surgery were "Pain, pain, pain" He was suprised that I was not more symptomatic than I was. I think I was that symptomatic, I'm just not one to show it as much on my sleave. My wife was probably the only one that understood where I was at from a pain perspective. Dr. Zeegers said placement was "perfect" and that things could not have gone better. That is obviously what we wanted to hear. I am still jet lagged and know I will be up for awhile. I will post again before going to bed.

Thanks for all of the prayers, kind thoughts, and encouragement.

Geoff