I feel like with this surgery you can’t just focus on price but also the quality of the nail. And even then doing the surgery here is more cost effective than most places. Plus the people are really cool as well. I’ve met some other patients here at the hotel / clinic and everyone is really happy with a strong positive mental attitude!
My advice is to schedule a meeting with Becker snd go visit with him and his team. Check out the hotel and physical therapy clinic. You’ll be surprised man!
Right I mean I have no doubt I would be impressed. In Athens, there is sort of an understanding that the buildings/city/pavement/roads/some other things will be sort of old and damaged and we get our x-rays back as CD's but none of us have CD players (a certain late 1990s or early 2000s vibe, though we do get to see them on a screen at the doctor's office). I have to think that Germany will look alot more modern and be a better experience overall for most people if they are willing to pay a bit more
But I just don't yet know how to weigh:
- betzbone tibias -> much better quality of life probably to be able to walk much faster
versus
precise 2 -> can go in reverse and shorten if there is a problem but you're stuck in a wheelchair for a very long time
- better price
And the other thing I'm not sure about is this: I might want (possibly unnecessarily) to stay near the doctor's area until consolidation is complete (not sure how important that is or not) and everything is fine. But that would incur alot of living costs and I haven't thought about Athens vs Germany for this
And then the other things I'm trying to figure out are:
- why aren't the USA doctors using weight bearing tibia nails?
- what are the physical/medical reasons behind the time Dr. Assayag said that stryde had more non union than expected/is this true of other weight bearing tibia nails like betzbone?
The other x factor is that if you are light enough and also your bones are big enough, I heard from an internal tibia patient in Athens that the biggest precise 2 nail can support more weight than some might expect and it might be OK for very lightweight/thin people
I sort of wonder then if Dr. Becker is an option for fatter people. You can ask ozboy-- I don't look fat, but I am pretty sure that I am the heaviest patient in Athens right now at like 80 kg
I feel like right now for femurs that clicking weight bearing nails are probably are best option until stryde comes back, but for tibias I am not completely sure.
precise vs clicking weight bearing nails seems to be one of the biggest decisions LL patients need to make and I wonder why this isn't talked about more