[runner]

Really, my cervical spine is small potatoes compared to my lumbar spine. After getting my second ADR, which was at L5/S1, I started with new symptoms some 14 months post-op. I haven't gotten better, I have declined and it has been frustrating fighting my insurance company. It is a work comp case, but it is an insurance company I am fighting.

I made some head way this week, though. I have been on bed rest, with just quick trips to the loo, because I had a CT myelogram Wednesday. Since I have ProDiscs, which are made out of stainless steel, the ADRs throw off artifact when I have a test like a plain MRI or CT, and that obscures what a radiologist can see. I have had an EMG that has indicated that I have nerve compression at L5/S1 and when I underwent the test last September, it showed moderate nerve compression and a moderate loss of axons. So I have both objective "proof" and subjective proof and that adds up to nerve compression.

My subjective proof is my strong radiculopathy symptoms. I am in moderate to severe pain every day in both my legs and back. Never mind my numb toes and feet, a numbness that can creep up to my knees. My pain doc has tried working through the process with my wc company but they have been denying most of my care and they have doctors that point to my MRI results that were basically inconclusive because my entire lumbar discs could not be visualized. WC docs contend nothing indicating radiculopathy showed up on the MRI.
Really, the gold standard for people like me that have artifact-producing stainless steel ADRs, is to get a myelogram both IMHO, and according to what I have read in several spinal studies. It is a way to get around the artifact issue, so to speak.

Without going into the whole process, let's just say I got fed up last week, made an appointment, and went and got the myelogram anyway. Since February, when I found out that the hospital wanted minimum $5,000 for a cash-pay procedure, I thought I couldn't get a "self-pay" myelogram.That it would be too expensive. I got one outside the hospital and the terms were reasonable.

Now, I have to wait for the results but I am pretty sure the radiologist will find that I have a compressed nerve at L5/S1. It is a "no-brainer" to my docs and myself. With the results, I hope and pray that my neurosurgeon is able to do something for me.

So that is where I am at. I am sure that I can dig up some posts I have about my journey that can clarify things. (Or not on second hand, I already write too much so excuse the long blog) I can tell now that I feared getting a myelogram but did feel it was the prudent thing to do. The good news is that so-far I do not have the dreaded spinal headache, that I read happens to about 30 percent of the people who get this test.

R

To be continued...