Questions for Doc
 

Hello everyone!!! I haven't posted for a while but have made some progress. Anthem BCBS denied my ADR & Fusion hybrid surgery. My Doc appeal twice and still was turned down. I switched to Aetna coverage and got approval for the procedure. I am scheduled for surgery on June 12. Have Pre-op appointments this week and am looking for specific questions I should speak with the surgeon about. I would appreciate any suggestions. I did a site search and didn't find much.
Thanks,
Bogiewan

Bogiewankenobie, sorry you are here. Thanks for creating a signature. May I ask how your Ankylosing Spondylitis was diagnosed and treated? In many clinical trials, AS is a contraindication. Why is that?

Many of the questions you could ask are covered in the DVD I created for spine patients. A good primer or "cheat sheet" to help you get to the qualification and risk questions are here:

http://www.adrsupport.org/forums/f51...ications-9620/

Pls note that this is a multipage topic. Hope this helps.

PS: You may recall these past topics on AS:

http://www.adrsupport.org/forums/f44...disease-11309/

http://www.adrsupport.org/forums/f44...neration-5680/

http://www.adrsupport.org/forums/f49...ndylitis-9071/ (now six-year old topic)

Harrison,

I have been fighting back pain for 19 years. About 12 years ago my family doc found I had the HLA-B27 genetic marker and sent me to a Rhuematalogist. He treated me for 10 years for AS, but things just didn't add up. I would meet other people with AS and they would continuely say they didn't believe I had it. My PT didn't see it either. I ended up at the Cleveland Clinic and was told I did not have AS. This was supported by many blood tests and spinal x-rays.

The Rhuemy at Cleveland showed me and my wife the x-rays and noted how clean my spine was. I was told I did have a problem at L4-L5, L5-S1. That is how I ended up looking at ADRs, my nuerosurgeon doesn't do them but thought I was the perfect candidate for them and encouraged me to follow the ADR path. I would suspect AS in a contraindication because the inflamation throughout the spine creates a stiff spine that eventually self fuses.

Bogiewan

Bogiewan, did you by any chance discuss the AS / Klebsiella / gut-mediated connection with any of your docs? Were you screened or tested for that? Pls see the article on this within this topic:

http://www.adrsupport.org/forums/f44...disease-11309/
Excerpt:

Abstract: Ankylosing spondylitis (AS) and Crohn's disease (CD), especially when associated with spondylitis are interrelated conditions included within the categories of spondyloarthropathic disease entities. They share some common clinical, genetic, and microbiological findings.

An extensive amount of studies which have been carried out by various independent groups throughout the world have shown that Klebsiella pneumoniae microorganisms could be suggested as the most likely etiopathogenetic triggers for AS and CD based on the molecular mimicry mechanism and the existence of the evidence for immunological, microbiological, and molecular link between Klebsiella and self antigens.

It is proposed that the use of low starch diet in conjunction with the currently used treatment might help in the eradication of Klebsiella microbes from the bowel and could result in the stoppage and alleviation of the disease process in patients with AS and/or CD.

It's worth digging into, though the research is relatively new, but solid.

Harrison,
I did do some research on it, but I did not speak with my Rhuemy about it, so I was not tested.

Hello and welcome. This board should be able to give you a lot of different outlooks regarding ADR. Personally I have not had the best of luck so far. I will say I am worse off now than before, but everyone here is different. There is another woman on here round my age same surgery; we also had the same implant. She is doing extremely well. So who knows. All I can say do all the research you can. Best wishes.