Being frugal with your spine is gonna cost you bro

What are you talking about? Is the surgeon going to perform better if I had fought with the insurance company beforehand, or paid out of pocket?

Bertagnoli doesnt take insurance bro you have to pay out of pocket then submit it to insurance. As insurance companies delay payment n arbitrate prices its not what the BEST Surgeons in the world want. I had bcbs federal. Usually if your in usa n the procedure is not fda approved it makes it hard to get an advance payment. Insurance is like medicade now. I believe to get the best care you need cash. Cash is king. And bei g oainfree is better than cash to me. Its all a game in the usa. Doctors go to a 2 hour class n then r certified to install new discs

Dude, wtf are you talking about. Why do I have to go to Bertagnoli? And why do I need to pay my surgeon upfront with cash? Is he suddenly going to perform better? And guess what, if I had surgery and had complications back in the US, most surgeons here won't want to take me on as a patient. Instead of having ADR surgery in my hometown (which was an option), I chose to fly out to Texas and go to what is generally considered to be the best place in the US to have this done. It's all about weighing the options and deciding what's best for yourself.

GKTM300, what you said about surgical training for US doctors is false. Docs here have been performing ADRs since 1999. I received mine in 2004.

Frugality has little to do with Robb's issue; your comment is not helpful. Please refrain from posting on this topic. Thanks for your cooperation.

Well, I made it to Plano, Texas. Did all my pre-op stuff today. The meeting with the psychologist was interesting. You take a test which is 433 questions long. Some of the questions are pretty obvious in what they're trying to figure out Have you ever made a plan to kill yourself?. Some of the questions weren't so obvious (at least, not to me) Does the top of your head feel tender?.

Surgery is tomorrow morning.

Adr
 

Good luck tomorrow!

Maybe I didn't follow the whole thread. Why the psych testing? Everyone thought I was crazy for going to Spain by myself, with a doc I met on the internet, to get 3 non FDA approved devices! Somehow it made perfect sense to me then. Looking back, it now seems a bit crazy. But in my case, so far, crazy wins thanks to this forum and Dr Clavel's team. You will be a winner also. Stay positive and frame your recovery expectations appropriately. (TBI never did approve me for ADR due to low bone density)

Good luck with your procedure and recovery!

I've started a new thread here documenting my surgery and recovery:

https://www.adrsupport.org/forums/sh...012#post118012