“This procedure has changed my life…”
My name is Daniel, and I suffered with back pain for nine years. I have two degenerative and bulging discs in my lower back. I had numbness in my left leg and extreme pain in my lower back. As a result, I was not able to bend at the waist in any direction without collapsing in pain.
Over the last nine years I have seen many doctors: three general practitioners, three back specialists, three pain specialists, one neurosurgeon, and two physical therapists. They all have tried to help, some with more success than others but no one was able to completely help me. They tried epidurals, facet injections, a direct disc injection, a laparoscopy, and pain management classes.
After my laparoscopy procedure in December 2007 I felt much better. I went back to work in July 2007 and a week later I felt two big pops in my back and all the back pain and leg numbness came back worse then ever before. So off to the doctors I went again. But this time it was different. Dr. P., my pain management doctor, felt that she had tried everything she knew and was thinking I needed a fusion in my back. She referred me back to my neurosurgeon, who felt that I could be suffering from degenerative disc and disc collapsing in the area of the surgery site of the laparoscopy. He wanted me to go to physical therapy for two months and come back to see him if it did not work, at which point he would recommend surgery.
The physical therapist did not feel he could help me, but he did offer to send me to Dr. Norman Marcus at the Norman Marcus Pain Institute. I thought, “Why not? I have tried most everything else.” At the time I thought there was nothing that could help me other than a fusion or disc replacement.
I showed up on a Saturday in November of 2007 in great pain with a limp and unable to bend in any direction. After the procedure the most amazing things started to happen. Within 24 hours I could touch my toes and was walking without a limp. I had two rounds of injections over the next three months and gained full mobility and 95% pain loss. I stopped taking all pain medications for the first time in nine years.
In Feb 2008 I had a relapse. I was putting on my socks and felt something move in my back and all the pain came back with numbness in my left leg, scaring my wife and me to death. Yet again the most amazing thing happened, within 24 hours the numbness was gone and with five days I was back to 90% pain free. Now it is March 6, 2008 and I still am at 85% with stiffness and some pain. But Dr. Marcus said one more round of injection and I will be at 95-100% again. This procedure has changed my life. After nine years I am working and living with the confidence that I can make it. There are so many people out there suffering in pain to the point of wanting to give up and die like I felt. I want them to know how this procedure has changed my life.
Daniel
