[treefrog]

Well, I am still waiting for a surgery date. Perhaps Dr. Fenk-Mayer decided to take some vacation time too.

Yesterday I talked to the ortho surgeon that I consulted with back in December. He said he does not like to take on other surgeon's "problems". So, if I were to need follow-up care after surgery, he wouldn't do it. Well, that's disappointing. I hope my PM doctor will continue to see me, and will prescribe medications for whatever I might need to take with me.

Of course he tried to talk me out of going to Germany. He said he thought I could get two-level ADR, and pay out of pocket here in the US for less than $40,000. HA! He also said there were no results to prove that 2-level disc replacement (ADR) is any better than 2-level fusion. He said fusion is not perfect, but neither is ADR, and he thinks that if you are going to have problems after surgery, it wouldn't matter if you have fusion or ADR. Basically saying that some people are just going to have problems no matter what surgery they have.

My interpretation of the above opinions - first he is only basing his opinions on results from US investigations (clinical trials and surgeries). He even told me at our consult that he there isn't much reliable data coming from Europe, because they don't have the same standards that we do. And if I look at just US results, I don't think it looks very good either, which is why I want to go to Germany.

Then he said that if it were him, he would choose 2-level fusion over 2-level ADR, and hybrid over 2-level fusion.

I didn't get around to saying one of the other reasons for going to Germany was experience. He mentioned that he has done about a dozen hybrid surgeries. That is laughable. Compared to the thousands of ADR surgeries Dr. Bertagnoli has done. But, at least I didn't have to get into it with him.