Anatomy of an M6 Artificial Disc
Well here I am between the devil and the deep blue sea, between a rock and a hard place, between…… you get the idea. Anyone who has been reading this blog knows I have been battling back pain and Degenerative Disc Disease for a canny few years now.
My last MRI was just 9/13/2012 and resulted in 2 sets of steroid injections, the second set gave me absolute relief for 7 whole days. Anyone who has back pain knows to be completely free of it is one of the most amazing things ever. And I do mean free, nothing nada, no twinges, no ache, no sharp pains, NO PAIN KILLERS!
Shame it was for just 7 days before it started to wear off. I had a good Christmas as the shots were working and slowly reducing the pain which in and of its self is a miracle ;o) When the pain slowly started to come back it was disappointing but not unexpected.
Now though it is back to full strength and brings me to tears at times. Having to work all day lying flat on my back in bed is frustrating in the extreme. I can still work 8 to 10 hours this way but constantly moving your arms on the keyboard and mouse takes its toll, the back still complains but nothing like when sitting.
I kept hoping (futilely I know) that it would resolve itself. Who am I kidding, DDD just gets worse not better, it’s not going to spontaneously become like a 20 year old again (neither is the rest of me, darn!)
So what to do? I’m a research nut, I won’t do anything till I have researched it to the point of analysis paralysis and information overload. In this instance though I feel it is justified.
My dear sweet long suffering hubby came up with artificial disk replacement about a year ago. Until then we never even knew such a thing existed and none of my orthopedic or neurological surgeons even mentioned it. They only seem to know one word: fusion!
After researching that puppy the answer was easy: NO.
But ADR (artificial disk replacement) seemed promising. The FDA here in the US of A are really slow (read under staffed) at getting stuff approved, hence we are years behind Europe in a lot of medical procedures and medicines. Now, being English, and having moved here 13 years ago, I am lucky enough to be able to see both sides of the coin. ADR has been performed in Europe for over 20 years now so some of the top surgeons in the world have done 1000 or more of these ops. They know what they are doing.
In the US though, although the FDA have approved certain ADR devices they have limited it to 1 disc replacement only (in Europe they have done as many as 7 in one go) and there are very few surgeons who have actually performed the op, ergo they do not have the experience, ergo the failure rate is high.
The next hurdle, should you actually be able to find a surgeon here with a good reputation and some experience, is your insurance. There are very few insurance providers who will cover the op. They will cover a fusion, if you are lucky (or not) but otherwise it is out of your own pocket.
Here in the US back surgery is done on an outpatient basis, both my laminectomies were done in the morning and I was home in the afternoon, throwing up, unable to move, or even to sit on the toilet without help. And the US wonders why they are 48th in the world for PREVENTABLE deaths!
I digress, nothing new there then.
In Europe you stay in the hospital until you are able to look after yourself, it’s still nice to have help at home but I know some who have got to Europe to get the ADR surgery on their own and flew back in one piece, on their own. They were in hospital long enough to make sure there were no complications, they could actually sit on the toilet by themselves, etc.
So what is my dilemma, well it’s not where to get the surgery, Europe is the only answer if I don’t want fusion, and I don’t!
So my dilemma is… er can’t think of one. Guess I’m just scared and trying to come up with excuses. I have at least 20 to 30 years left in me and the thought of spending them not only in pain but unable to actually live my life fills me with dread. But then so is major surgery at my time of life, at 60 I am no spring chicken and I know there are those who have had the surgery older than me and have never looked back (every pun intended) but…
So here is where I am at the moment, I’ve done the research, picked the surgeon, know the country I am going to, sent in most of the forms. I am now just waiting to hear from the surgeon to know if I am a candidate.
That’s the best and the worst part, am I a candidate? I know surgeons here who will always tell you they can help you even if they can’t and the web abounds with stories from patients. I don’t know that they are more ethical over there but they don’t take everybody.
So now I wait with fingers crossed that they can do something for me. If the injections had not worked so well at reducing the inflammation of the discs and therefore my pain I might not be considering this, but if they can take out my inflamed, bulging, herniated discs and make me pain free, I am willing to go through anything.
I just want to know that I can actually do it.
If you are not squeamish here’s a video of the actual surgery. They are inserting a different type of ADR (the Pro-Disk not the M6) but the surgery is the same. It’s graphic because it is real surgery but fascinating (to my addled brain) if you like that sort of thing ;o)
image attributed to: http://www.germanspinespecialists.com/m6_technology.html