The Barrow Institute's Mobi-C surgeon Dr. Chang determined I was not a Mobi-C candidate because of my prior minimally invasive surgeries so, he won't even allow me to set up an appointment to see him. It was like pulling teeth to get that answer! Dr. Porter at the Barrow Institute thinks I'm too old because I'm in my 50's. He will under perfect circumstances (i.e. healthy person in 20's or 30's) do the Pro-Disc C surgery. However, both the surgeons at Barrow agree that I should get the fusion surgery. No surprise there. This sadly is playing out exactly as I anticipated it would.
There are no other Mobi-C surgeons in my network in Arizona. I can either wait until January 2016 when I can change my insurance plan to continue fighting this fight in my state (I think that's a wasted effort) or go to Europe and pay cash for the surgery or find a more seasoned ADR surgeon in the U.S. that thinks I'm a candidate and pay cash for the surgery. I think this thread is just about dead but, before I end it, I'll see what Dr. Zeegers in Europe says about me being an ADR candidate. Dr. Bierstedt thinks I am a candidate for a two level cervical ADR surgery. Stay tuned ...
__________________
2006: epidural shots did nothing; 2 surgeons recommended 2 level fusion, I declined.
2007 - 2010 4 foraminotomy and cord decompression cervical surgeries and 2 endoscopic discectomy T7-T8 surgeries; total 6 with Dr. Jho (Pittsburgh,PA) My C6/C7 autofused around 2009.
2013 - 2015: epidurals 3 times (again did nothing) and 4 Radiofrequency ablation (or RFA) procedures.
2016 more RFAs, hit the 10 year mark of this insanity and pain, 3 level M6-C ADR with Dr. Clavel May 19, 2016 
|