Category: Patient Stories
Larry, a patient of mine, stands out for his interesting path to surgery and recovery, as well as his strength and perseverance. For many years, Larry suffered from severe chronic pain from multi-level lumbar arthritis, disk degeneration and stenosis, which involved all 5 levels of his lumbar spine. I got to know him toward the end of his story, when he traveled from his home town in Pittsburgh to have surgery with me in New York. The problems first began in 1998, when Larry experienced a herniated disc in the lumbar region. He underwent surgery to correct the issue, which worked to temporarily alleviate his leg pain. …
Karen, a former patient of mine, had been suffering from back pain for over 10 years before I met with her. As the years rolled on, Karen experienced muscle spasms and severe pain from degenerative discs. She had never had an injury and couldn’t pinpoint the problem. She worked on pain management with some physical therapy, but after a bit of weight gain, her situation wasn’t getting any better. In January of 2012, Karen joined a gym to try and get in better shape and build up her core strength. To her dismay, this only made her pain worse: “You …
Derrek is a patient of mine who has left a lasting impression – he recently ran his first half marathon after having a 2 level spinal fusion (see his xray to the left). He is a great example of patients who become more physically active after a spinal fusion than they were before, which is a common experience in our practice. Derrek’s back pain began eleven years before his surgery, when one day he woke up with terrible pain in his back. Over the course of the eleven years, after all else failed, his condition deteriorated to the point where he considered surgery. …
Meet James, a former patient of mine. James’ story began when he was lifting paving stones and felt a sudden shooting pain in his back, eventually traveling to his legs and toes. Knowing something was wrong, he immediately consulted a physician, but doctor after doctor couldn’t figure it out. He had undergone prior surgery for a herniated disk about 15 years ago. After receiving five different opinions with no clear answer, James was left with more uncertainty: “Five different guys didn’t seem clear on where my problem was. They thought it was scar tissue from a previous surgery I had …
Kathryn is a former patient of mine who has left a lasting impression. Her back pain began when she hurt her L3/L4 disc after a spinning class, and she believes she aggravated the injury during a subsequent game of golf. Initially, Kathryn told me she didn’t think too much of it because she’s athletic and used to pushing herself outside her comfort zone. Kathryn thought this was something she could deal with – so she sought a massage treatment, iced her lower back area, and rested. Afterwards, she continued to play golf and attend spinning class. Unfortunately, what Kathryn didn’t …
It started about seven years ago. I had lower back pain and all of that, but I was always pretty active, so I didn’t pay much attention to it. I didn’t really think it was anything serious. When my son was home from military duty he said to me, “you know mom, you’re getting crooked.” It was two years later that I had my back X-rayed. They told me I had a curve—25 degrees at that time. I went to physical therapy and that helped for a while. It was the physical therapist who said it will either hold or …
My doctor said I needed to get the surgery because my spinal cord might get worse by the time I’m 25. My scoliosis was 65 degrees. Gregory // Age: 25 Condition // Scoliosis Occupation // Student (NY) How did you find Dr. McCance? My doctor referred me to two doctors—one was Dr. McCance. Why did you choose Dr. McCance for your surgery? When I went into his office for the first time I saw it was very modern. I saw that the New York Daily News had an article about him. I was really impressed. At first I was really …
In 2002, when I was in my early 50s, I had my first lumbar surgery. After that I was pain-free for 3 years or so. I had done the rehab as I was instructed and after eight months was told I could return to the gym. My original lumbar surgery was performed by a top- rated specialist at a world-class orthopedics hospital. The results were quite poor and degraded over time. They included a fusion failure at L5/S1, which I did not discover for several years. After the three years the pain returned and got worse and worse until I …
I knew for a long time that I had a mild scoliosis in my lumbar region, but I never had any symptoms. I was active. I did a lot of weight lifting, played rugby. About nine years ago I started having a little bit of pain. It wasn’t just acute, it was also chronic. I had it every day. The first surgeon I met with said I had the back of a 60 year old and tried to blame me for my condition. He was of no help and said he couldn’t do anything. Went to another back surgeon and …
I was coming home from Boston and had a car accident going 65 miles an hour. They wanted to do surgery in Boston because they said I broke my neck, but I just wanted to get home to New York. And I didn’t want to have surgery. The only thing I’ve ever had was stitches when I was twelve. And when you go online, all you see are these terrible stories and then you’re told you can die or get paralyzed, so I didn’t want to get surgery. Plus, young people like me, they don’t want surgery. When I got …
