Ellabelle,
Welcome to the forum! I hope you don’t mind, but I’m moving this thread to the main discussion area where it will get more attention. (You posted in the travel forum that is intended only to discuss logistics and travel related info… there is really no discussion of spine there.)
You are in a tough spot. You’ve been at this more than a decade, so hoping for spontaneous improvement is not that great an option.
You are correct that most motion preservation technologies are still not covered by most insurance in the US.
I don’t understand what Dr. Feil wants to do. It sounds like he is not considering the ActivL or ProDisc total disc replacement.
Evaluating risk vs. reward is very difficult in spine. There is a randomness to the failures that makes them difficult to anticipate. I have 2 lumbar ADR’s done in Germany (2002) with great result. So does my wife (2008). I know literally hundreds of ADR patients. Most are successful, but the failure rate is not insignificant. The consequences of a failure are pretty dire, but in my opinion, it is no worse than fusion. It’s hard to discuss this without knowing what Dr. Feil wants to do.
I have sent you my phone number via private message. Feel free to call and discuss this if you’d like.
We’ll continue this later. Good luck!
Mark
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