Cervical Discopathy C4-C5, C5-C6 & C6-C7

[Alain]

Hi Everyone,
Its been 8 months now that I am suffering (non stop) from a severe pain in my right shoulder with numbness in my fingers. it is impossible to support the pain or to sleep at night without pain killers. Lately I am starting to loose sensation in both ring and baby fingers

X-ray is showing Arthritis in the three discs (C4-C5, C5-C6 & C6-C7)
Electromyography is showing decreased strength in the right hand triceps
MRI is showing Disc protrusion at C4-C5, C5-6 & C6-C7

For the time being I am working in Saudi Arabia and local doctors are telling me to be patient, use a cervical collar and take pills (Celebrex, Lyrica,...)

While going through this excellent forum (that I have discovered yesterday) and reading the life experience of the members around, I have decided to start taking some contacts with German clinics in order to have a better diagnostic.

I can see that there is several clinics mentioned in this forum and I have chosen the Beta Klinik because of the CV of Dr. Zeegers. I have sent today a detailed file to the clinic and was informed that Dr. Axel Jung will check my file and revert quickly. Is this usual that the leading doctors are checking the files or I should have asked for Dr. Zeegers in my request?

In parallel, I have read so many threads about Dr. Baumbach and his excellent diagnosis that I feel like it is important to meet him and have his opinion as well before going further.

How can I arrange to see Dr. Baumbach ?

Thanks...

Alain

[mmglobal]

Alain, welcome to the forum. The BetaKlinik is absolutely first class. IMHO, there is not another clinic that is better equipped and staffed for a thorough diagnosis. I've known Dr. Zeegers since 2000 and he did my lumbar surgery in 2002 at the AlphaKlinik in Munich.

I've also seen Dr. Baumbach dozens of times with clients because whenever there is substantial neuro involvement, getting the comprehensive neuro exam prior to you surgery can make all the difference in the world. Not only to correlate the noted pathology with the symptoms you are experiencing, but to establish a base-line neuro status. You may have deficits that you don't even know about. After your surgery, if you are chasing issues, it would be VERY important to know if they existed BEFORE your surgery or not.

While I have been to neuro exams with dozens of different neurologists, I have never seen anything close to the thorough approach that Dr. Baumbach provides. He's still in the Munich area so you'll have to hit Munich and Bonn/Cologne. Contact me off the forum and I'll put you in touch with Dr. Baumbach. (Phone number on ispine or GPN website contact pages.)

Mark

[mmglobal]

Alain, I hope you don't mind, but I moved this thread to the main forum where it will get more traffic. The 'travel' forums were set up to discuss issues like hotels, sightseeing, etc... and never really took off.

Take care,

Mark

[henry4956]

Hy, my name is Henry and I had 2 level lumbar adr with Dr Zeegers and Dr Jung on april 16th (6 days out now)
I am convinced that tactically and skill wise Dr Zeegers has no peer even though he is in the latter stage of his brilliant career of saving spines. I was also pleasantly surprised at the abilities and superb communication skills of Dr Jung who fully participated with Zeegers on my surgery. I had a brutal 1st 5 days and probably wouldn't have responded to this thread last night, but I had that 'light at the end of the tunnel day' today. I could not recommend a better 2 man team than them. Sure, they are the only spine surgeons I know personally, but I had done many months of research on Dr Zeegers and his record is outstanding. He will always do the appropriate thing based on individual circumstances. Added bonus you WILL NOT get with just about anyone else, direct one to one correspondence thru email with all you worries and concerns addressed by Dr Zeegers without costly visits pre-op. His diagnosis fee is well worth the $$ just for the piece of mind and clarity it will give you and allows you to make a well informed decision

Feel free to PM me for more and I wish you some peace of mind today