“I was 19, a sophomore in college,” Susan said. “I started having pain in my hip and couldn’t figure out what was causing it.”

She bounced from doctor to doctor, looking for answers. Several months later, her right leg was paralyzed. She needed a MRI, which confirmed she’d ruptured a disc in her lower back. It was compressing her nerve roots, and she needed to have surgery immediately.

“[The doctor] said, ‘I don’t want to fuse your spine; you’re too young,” Susan said. “But he also told me, ‘this won’t be your only surgery.’”

The recovery was arduous. She was directed to stand up straight or lie flat on her back for 30 days. From then on, she battled chronic daily pain, derived from a combination of arthritis and spondylolisthesis, a condition when one vertebra slips in front of the other.

“It wasn’t severe most of the time, but I always knew it was there,” she said. “And as I got older, it started getting worse and worse. And I usually had one to two bad weeks per year, but I always dealt with it.”

In 2015, the pain became insufferable.

She couldn’t perform daily tasks, like bending down to tie her shoes. She went to see Jeffrey L. Gum, M.D., orthopedic spine surgeon with Norton Leatherman Spine, who — in June of that year — performed a successful lumbar fusion of Susan’s L4 and L5 vertebrae.

During the nearly three-hour, “open-technique” surgery, Dr. Gum made a roughly 6-inch incision in Susan’s back and removed bone spurs and disc fragments that were pressing on her nerve roots. Then, he took pieces of bone from Smith’s hip and placed them between vertebrae in her spine, then fused the bones together using screws and rods. She spent three nights in the hospital and started her recovery, which compared to her first surgery, was night and day.

“When I went home, it was no lifting, bending or twisting,” Susan said. “But Dr. Gum told me to live my life and we’ll check in in 30 days.”

But she didn’t even need that long. After just two weeks, she was cleared to return to work.

“I have not had pain since the day of my surgery,” Susan said. “Everyone tweaks their back every now and then, but I have not had back pain for almost nine years.”

‘Like daughter, like mother’

Sharry Waldeck has a theory.

She believes her back pain is derived from the day she fell off a horse when she was 10 years old. Though the riding accident didn’t impact her severely at the time, she’s had some back pain from then on.

Fast forward roughly 60 years, and that pain began to worsen.

“Probably for the [last] two years, I have had quite a bit of pain that last year became intense,” Sharry said. “And the last few months was to the point that I could hardly do my household chores or get dressed.”

Luckily for Sharry, her daughter Susan had some experience and knew who to call.

In 2023, Susan connected her mother with Dr. Gum, who diagnosed Sharry with the exact same conditions — spondylolisthesis and arthritis. Sharry also was dealing with slight scoliosis, or sideways curving of the spine. She needed surgery to correct it.

“She had a lot of voices telling her it might not go great,” Susan said. “And I knew better. And I knew Dr. Gum would never have suggested surgery if he didn’t think he could improve her quality of life. So my role in all of it was to counteract the negative [stigma] around back surgery.”

In November, Dr. Gum performed the same surgery on Sharry as he did on Susan — a lumbar fusion of the L4 and L5 vertebrae. And while the premise of the surgeries was the same, Dr. Gum was able to perform Sharry’s procedure as minimally-invasive surgery, with the help of a robot.

The robot — called the Mazor X Stealth Edition— helps expedite surgery time and get patients into the recovery room quicker. It uses imaging software and GPS capabilities to help surgeons map out a plan before surgery, increasing the accuracy of screw placement and improving the overall efficiency of the surgery. Because the robot guides the screws, the size of the patient’s incision decreases to less than 2 inches. Even more, the new surgical technique also affects how surgeons manage pain. Dr. Gum used a preoperative nerve block, helping reduce the need for opioids to manage pain post-surgery.

“I love it,” Dr. Gum said. “I always want new technology that can help us do things better, and I love proving that it adds value to our specialty. For me, it’s like seeing what’s not just available now, but what can be available in two years, five years or 10 years; that’s what gets me excited about what I do. When you decide to go into a surgical specialty, you’ve checked the box of being a lifelong learner and always being receptive to new technology or new techniques. So I think it’s one of the most exciting things we get to do.”

Sherry’s recovery was just as advertised.

Just hours after surgery, she was sitting in a chair and had already walked the hospital floor without issues. After an evaluation from Dr. Gum, she was cleared to go home. So, Susan helped her mother get dressed and walked her out of the hospital that same night.

“It is truly amazing to see,” Susan said of her mother. “I was waiting to go back to recovery, and it was taking pretty long. And finally they came out and said, ‘She wants to go home.’ It’s crazy to think here I was 30 years younger and in the hospital for three nights, very long incision, with drains and ports and the whole bit,” Susan said. “And here she is, 30 years older, with no hospital stay. And I only stayed with her one night, and that was it.”

‘I get goosebumps talking about it’

Now five months after surgery, Sharry is back to normal, living her life without restrictions. Susan is still doing well too, eight years after her procedure.

They compare scars from time to time and have the usual mother-daughter discussions about their procedures. But, they don’t give too much thought to the gravity of it all, until you ask.

“When I had mine done, I knew it was going to be better than my first surgery 20 years before that, but I didn’t appreciate the difference in the two,” Susan said. “To go from my first surgery to what I had done [in 2015] is amazing. But that was 20 years, and so it makes sense. But then to think, ‘Oh, in nine more years there’s going to be a robot that’s going to do this surgery, and you’re going to have this tiny incision and you’re not going to have to stay in the hospital, that didn’t cross my mind. And I definitely didn’t think [the example] would be my own mom.”

The same can’t be said for Dr. Gum, who continues to push the limits of what is technologically possible, while looking ahead to what the next advancement might be, and how that may make patients’ lives even better.

“I almost get goosebumps talking about that,” Dr. Gum said. “Every day you enter that operating room, you need to understand how you can do better the next time you go in. And so part of that learning or critique process is asking yourself, ‘Why are we doing it this way?’ If there are techniques to do it better, we need to learn those techniques. So to me, every day is an evolution of how I look at the [operating room]. I want to walk out of there learning something new or better. And when you take a step back and put it all together, I think it’s beautiful and awesome that we’re seeing robots in the OR. There’s all this new technology that’s evolving that’s going to make it easier and safer for what we do.”

The post Mother-daughter duo gets same spine surgery from same Norton Leatherman Spine surgeon appeared first on Norton Healthcare.

It was Tuesday, Oct. 10, 2023. Mike was only six months removed from major spine surgery in his lower back.

Yet, here he was again, sitting in the office of Kathryn J. McCarthy Mullooly, M.D., on the Norton Healthcare ­– St. Matthews campus facing a different, yet equally life-changing injury. Dr. McCarthy, spine surgeon with Norton Leatherman Spine, pulled up Mike’s MRI. It showed severe cervical stenosis, or spinal compression, in his neck. The condition, if aggravated, could leave Mike paralyzed.

“[The doctor] pulls up my MRI,” Mike said. “And as soon as she pulled it up, I looked at it and I thought, ‘That doesn’t look good.’ Then she asked me, ‘Can you do surgery Friday?’”

“It was a ‘don’t pass go; don’t collect $200’” situation, Dr. McCarthy said. “We needed to move forward with a decision-making matrix to address this, because you’re at risk for much more dire issues.”

Mike learned he needed an anterior cervical discectomy and fusion. Just hearing those words, Mike broke down into tears.

The competitive mountain bike racer thought about what he had just been through over the past few months, and the possibility of losing his active lifestyle for good. He knew he needed the surgery, but he wasn’t sure he was ready for his second one since April.

Then, one day later, the spine surgeon offered Mike a lifeline.

“She messaged me like, ‘Hey, you left the office yesterday before I had a chance to reach back out to you,’” Mike said. “‘I have another patient who was here for a four-week checkup. Would it be OK if I passed her information along?’”

Dr. McCarthy had spine patient Wendy Matus’ permission to share her email address with Mike. He sent Wendy a message, and a few hours later, his phone rang. It was Wendy.

Reaching out would lead to a heartwarming connection between the two spine patients. But first, a bit about Mike’s story:

‘That was the worst five weeks of my life’

For Mike, it all started with a dull ache in March 2023.

He was training for his next mountain bike race near his home in Asheville, North Carolina, when he felt the ache start to creep down his hip flexor and into his left leg.

“I wasn’t alarmed at all,” said Mike, who also has a residence in Louisville. “I thought I needed maybe a couple extra days of recovery, a chiropractor, a massage, but [the pain] never went away.”

He tried to ride again, but an hour in, he felt the pain again. In tune with his body, he got off the bike, went home and took a shower.

Then it happened.

“It was like the flip of a switch,” he said. “I’ve never felt pain like this before in my life, ever. It’s the most traumatic thing I’ve ever been through.”

The dull ache morphed into hand-shaking pain. Mike barely made it from the shower to his bed, called 911 and was taken to the hospital. Doctors mandated four days of bed rest and pain medication. It didn’t work, and the pain came back almost instantly. He went for a MRI, which confirmed a far lateral herniated disc in his lower back. Five weeks and a few epidural shots later, Mike was back in the hospital with the same excruciating pain. His herniation had gotten worse.

“That was the worst five weeks of my life … ever,” Mike said. “I get it when people say they can’t live this way. I couldn’t sleep. I couldn’t sit in a chair. I couldn’t walk. … I was a mess. I didn’t know if this was ever going to go away, if I was ever going to be able to ride a bike again. I didn’t know. Everything was a big question mark.”

He got a referral to Dr. McCarthy in Louisville, and on April 12, she performed a successful far lateral discectomy, relieving the herniation in his back.

“He came at a time when he was really limited, and he was markedly debilitated,” Dr. McCarthy said. “He had tried everything else, and it was time to make a decision about what the next step was, and he was ready. He was frightened and concerned, but he did great.”

Mike’s improvement began the second he woke up from surgery. He could walk and sit down without pain. Eventually, after a few weeks, he began to train again. In the middle of the summer, he was out on a ride at DuPont State Recreational Forest in North Carolina.

Then the dull ache started again. This time, he felt it down his right arm.

He cut his ride short, thinking, “everything’s going to be different,” he said. “And I go out for a ride the next day, and it’s the same pain.”

He scheduled another appointment with Dr. McCarthy and, in the meantime, tried to change his lifestyle. He attended physical therapy sessions and moved his training rides indoors. There was improvement, enough for Mike to believe he was headed in the right direction.

But when he sat in the spine surgeon’s office in Louisville in October, that positive feeling quickly faded.

Meanwhile, Wendy had been on a somewhat similar health journey.

‘I was a little traumatized’

It was July 2022. Wendy had just moved from Chicago, Illinois, to Louisville for work.

The avid CrossFit athlete and exerciser was alone, trying to find her footing in a new city. Two weeks after her move, she had pain in her neck. It was so bad, she couldn’t move without agony. Muscle relaxers didn’t work. At one point, she didn’t sleep for three days. She visited several doctors before an innocent touch helped decipher what was happening.

“One of my doctors put her hand on my back, and my whole arm went numb,” Wendy said. “And that’s when she said, ‘Oh, that’s a spine issue.’”

From there, she was referred to Dr. McCarthy, who diagnosed her with a herniated disc in her neck.

“I was a little traumatized, because I had just broken my leg in two places the year prior,” Wendy said. “So I just felt like my body was falling apart.”

Wendy opted for physical therapy, which she did for roughly six to eight months. She saw slight improvement but never could get physically back to where she was before. The workouts seemed harder, and the soreness lasted longer.

“I would try to go to the gym, and everything would feel so off for like days afterwards,” Wendy said. “So it was just that I didn’t get back to where I wanted to be. All my ability to be really active felt like it was taken away.”

She needed a more permanent fix. Wendy returned to Norton Leatherman Spine in September 2023 and agreed to have surgery. On Sept. 14, Dr. McCarthy performed a successful anterior cervical discectomy and fusion.

Four weeks later, Wendy was back in her office feeling like a new woman.

‘We had so many different things in common’

When Wendy called Mike, two days before his neck surgery, she expected simply to help him through the pre-surgical process — answer some questions and point him in the right direction. The conversation was going well. They had talked for about 20 minutes, before Mike asked an interesting question.

“We’re talking, and everything she said made me feel a lot better [about surgery],” Mike said. And I thought, ‘Hey, what are you doing? Do you want to go for a hike?’”

A bit shocked, she said yes.

“The whole time, I was sitting there like, ‘I don’t even know who this guy is; I’m just trying to help him out.’ But admittedly, now I’m Googling and trying to figure out who he is. And it’s funny, because when I got out of my car, when we both got out of our cars and then we looked at each other, in my head I thought, ‘She totally set me up on a date.’”

The connection was instant. Wendy and Mike met for a hike at Cherokee Park and finished the entire loop. Then they went for a sushi dinner and a walk around the Highlands neighborhood. Before they knew it, they had been together almost eight hours.

“We saw that we had so many different things in common,” Wendy said. “And there was one point where I was in front of him [on the hiking trail] and we were both talking about how grateful we were. I’ve had two major surgeries. He’s about to have a second major surgery, but yet we’re both upright and still able to do the things we love to do. And he said something along the lines of, ‘It’s a beautiful day; I’m with a beautiful woman.’

“And that’s when I knew.”

They spent the next day at the Louisville Zoo together, building on the foundation they created the day before. With the surgery scheduled the following morning, Mike asked Wendy to stay with him in his Louisville home while he recovered. She agreed again.

“It was a pay-it-forward kind of thing,” Wendy said. “I think there’s a part of me that’s a natural caregiver type. But, it was great. I feel like he and I have such similar outlooks on things and are grounded in a similar way, that even though we knew each other for three days and it might seem insane that I would come and take care of him, it didn’t feel weird at all.”

Mike’s surgery was a success, and he recovered at his Louisville home with Wendy as a caregiver for about a week. After that, they packed their bags and went to Mike’s home in Asheville for a hike in the mountains. They snapped a selfie, and Mike sent it to their medical matchmaker. The accompanying message read:

“From crying in your office to this. You are quite the magician … Thank you!! For everything.”

“Clearly something clicked between the two of them,” Dr. McCarthy said. “They’re both incredibly spirited people. I’m thrilled that they’ve had great outcomes from surgery, first and foremost. I’m thrilled that they found each other too.”

Now, roughly four months later, Mike and Wendy continue to build on their relationship, enjoying more adventures together. They’ve begun planning for a future together, feeling lucky to have been connected by their surgeon’s serendipity.

“I’ve never been with somebody who communicates as well as him,” Wendy said. “Plus we spent a lot of time together in the beginning, so that accelerates things. So the level we’ve been able to communicate with each other, I feel like has helped us feel more comfortable and connected to each other. And, to us, it makes sense we can make plans for the future and not feel like it’s a gamble.”

“For any person who does what we do, the measure of success isn’t necessarily how many surgeries you do,” Dr. McCarthy said. “It’s this. Can you help somebody through a frightening situation and get them to the other side? In my heart it’s the greatest thing that you can see to affirm what you’re doing is impactful.”

The post Norton Leatherman Spine surgeon plays unintentional matchmaker for patients appeared first on Norton Healthcare.

“I want to have kids someday,” Hanna said, explaining her motivation for daily exercise and a healthy lifestyle. “And I want to have a family and this is the only way I’m going to be able to get going.”

Walking miles around her neighborhood was something Hanna couldn’t do just months ago. Back in October, she experienced crippling back pain and barely was able to stand, let alone walk. The pain was radiating from her lower back, down her legs and into her knees.

In January, the pain was so bad that Hanna took herself to the emergency room.

She ended up hospitalized for a few days, received pain pills and steroid shots and was discharged. Hanna looked for other doctors, and eventually found one who agreed to operate on her. Then, disappointment: The day before the scheduled surgery, it was canceled due to a  doctor’s family emergency. Disappointment turned to frustration when Hanna was referred to yet another doctor — who was out on maternity leave and would not be able to see Hanna for months.

Now Hanna was in pain and feeling like she was running out of options before she received a referral to Mahan Ghiassi, M.D., spine surgeon with Norton Leatherman Spine.

“Her story was a classic case of nerve root compression,” Dr. Ghiassi said. “She had debilitating pain where she wasn’t able to do normal, daily activities; even walking was a problem for her. And when we assessed her MRI scan, she had a very large herniated disc that was impinging her nerve root going down to her left leg. Given the severity of symptoms, given the duration and given that she’d already tried some conservative measures, we decided to proceed with the minimally invasive procedure.”

On May 2, less than two weeks after Hanna’s first visit with Dr. Ghiassi, he performed a minimally invasive discectomy at Hanna’s L4/L5 vertebrae. In this procedure, a small incision is made, and the surgeon uses a tube to remove part of the damaged disc. This eases the pressure on the spinal cord. Dr. Ghiassi also performed a hemilaminectomy at Hanna’s L4 vertebrae, shaving down the bone to further reduce the spinal compression.

“When you spend so much time training, to be able to help someone go from a situation where they’re unable to do basic daily activity, and doing an operation that’s delicate, effective and getting them back to their normal living and activity, there’s no better reward than that,” Dr. Ghiassi said.

Minimally invasive spine surgeries have become more popular in recent years, because they can be equally as effective as open surgeries while coming with less down time, reduced blood loss and fewer complications. The procedures also can help patients recover dramatically faster.

According to a 2022 article from World Neurology, in 2010 about 15% of spine surgeries were considered minimally invasive. Now, estimates exceed 75%. As the population over 65 increases, there is expected to be an increasing need for spine surgery.

“Minimally invasive spine surgery is certainly collecting steam as far as more practitioners providing it because there is more training happening at the residency level,” Dr. Ghiassi said. “So as more trainees are coming out of the spine surgery programs that are qualified to do this, I think it’ll be more prevalent in the community.”

Hanna’s surgery was an immediate success. She was pain-free while still in her hospital bed and was discharged to go home on the same day as her surgery.

“At first I thought there was no way in heck, but I prayed to God every day, and I knew if [Dr. Ghiassi] did surgery on me, I was going to be able to walk,” Hanna said. “As soon as I stood up … the pain in my hip and in my knees was gone. It was instant.”

With her back issues behind her, Hanna now set her sights forward, hoping to accomplish her goal of starting a family. That’s when she began to walk, and the results began to show. At her follow-up appointment three weeks after surgery, she already was down 8 pounds.

Now, nearly two months later, she’s lost 15 pounds and is well on her way to accomplishing her goal. She’s focused on keeping the weight off for a year before she and her husband try for their first child.

“If it wasn’t for [Dr. Ghiassi] and his amazing staff, I wouldn’t be here today,” Hanna said. “I can’t wait to have a family. Next May — I’m counting down.”

The post Minimally invasive spine surgery sets woman on path to healthy living, starting a family appeared first on Norton Healthcare.

She was in her 60s at the time and missed bowling, skiing and dancing. In fact, she got to the point that walking anywhere was a problem.

“I thought I was destined to live with the increasing pain for the rest of my life,” Joanne said.

When she moved to Kentucky in 2022, her new health care provider sent her to Kathryn J. McCarthy Mullooly, M.D., an orthopedic spine surgeon at Norton Leatherman Spine. With one look at an MRI and an X-ray, Dr. McCarthy saw the issue was spondylolisthesis: One of the vertebrae in Joanne’s spine had moved out of place and was sliding over the one below it.

“This issue can cause the vertebrae to put pressure on the nerves, resulting in various levels of pain,” Dr. McCarthy said. “It also can cause weakness in the legs. When physical therapy and exercise, anti-inflammatory medication and steroid injections do not work, or when there is increasing pain and weakness, surgery may be an option.”

Now 73, Joanne’s age, osteoporosis and increasing pain and weakness were making surgery a more attractive option. The procedure would fuse two of her discs and build up the damaged area with a synthetic protein that Norton Leatherman Spine surgeons Steven D. Glassman, M.D., and John R. Dimar II, M.D., helped study in clinical research trials years ago.

“The goal was to stabilize Joanne’s spine and accelerate bone growth to help build up the area,” Dr. McCarthy said. “And what made her surgery unique is that we could do it in a minimally invasive way.”

The surgery left Joanne with only two scars about 2 inches long on either side of her spine.

“My recovery was incredible,” Joanne said. “I started with pain that passed 10 [on a scale of 1 to 10], and now I’m down to 3 or less, which was the goal.

“I was up and walking a few hours after surgery. Norton Women’s & Children’s Hospital took very good care of me. The nursing staff was just wonderful.” Just a few months after the procedure, Joanne is back to walking around the block and looks forward to dancing with her husband soon.

The post After looking in Boston, woman finds back pain relief in Louisville appeared first on Norton Healthcare.

It started on the football field, after he experienced an injury in his neck that eventually required disc replacement surgery. That moment led him into the field of chiropractic medicine, helping his patients navigate their own spinal issues throughout his career.

In his early years, David also pursued a bodybuilding career, participating in competitions nationwide throughout the 1980s. During that time, he finished first in the Nevada state championship and the North American championships. He’s also competed in several triathlons and marathons, priding himself on staying in shape as he ages.

But in December 2021, at age 60, the retired chiropractor needed some spinal help of his own. He was in the middle of a round of golf when the pain forced him off the course.

“It’s like a psychology student trying to figure out their head, right?” David said. “A chiropractor goes and tries to figure out his spine.”

The pain became unbearable, and after exhausting all conservative options, David began looking for a surgeon who could put him back together permanently.

At this point in his life, he already had undergone two spinal surgeries — his prior disc replacement and a microdiscectomy in his lower back. The third surgery would be his most intense. He needed the right doctor. Eventually, he connected with Kirk Owens II, M.D., orthopedic spine surgeon with Norton Leatherman Spine.

Discussing options

After several conversations, the spine surgeon and chiropractor agreed on surgery.

“I found Dr. Owens, and we hit it off,” David said. “He showed a lot of respect for me as a patient and a professional. I liked the way he suggested things. And as soon as I made a decision, it was like a big relief. I think the dark moment went away. I was like, ‘OK, so now I have a plan. I’ve got a guy who I trust, and we’re going for it.’”

Dr. Owens diagnosed David with spondylolisthesis, or instability of the spine, causing one vertebra to slip forward in front of the other, pinching the nerves in the back and causing sciatic pain. David also was experiencing spinal stenosis, thanks to a cyst growing into his spinal canal.

In February 2022, Dr. Owens performed a minimally invasive TLIF surgery, short for transforaminal lumbar interbody fusion, fusing David’s L4 and L5 vertebrae.

“The biggest discussion that we had before surgery was really which levels to do, how many levels to do,” Dr. Owens said. “In his instance, what I tried to do was tailor the procedure to what I thought he needed. You could easily have looked at his MRI and his X-rays and said, ‘you need a fusion from L3 to S1,’ but listening to him, understanding his symptoms, I thought that L4 to L5 was causing most of his symptoms.”

Dramatic results

The results were dramatic. David was nearly pain-free in a matter of weeks and quickly started his rehabilitation schedule. First, he walked laps around the track at his gym. At the three-month post-surgery mark, he began lifting 15-pound kettlebells and increased his workload as the months progressed.

As chance would have it, David eventually found himself back onstage again.

In January, 10 months after his operation, he was named a finalist in a corporate challenge for people who make a healthy transformation in their lives. He was awarded a trip to Dallas, Texas, for the event, a cash prize and a professional photo shoot to show off his progress,

It was a chance for him to prove both to himself and others that a healthy lifestyle is attainable and sustainable after a major surgery.

“I’m not slowing down,” he said. “[Surgery] is a big choice, because through your spine, that’s where your life force runs. And anything that affects that, affects your life — your limbs, your body, your strength. It’s like cutting a wire on any kind of appliance. Until you fix the wire, the motor’s not going to run right.”

The post Bodybuilding chiropractor back to training after successful spinal surgery appeared first on Norton Healthcare.

“The surgeon pulled it up on the screen, and it was literally an ‘S,’” Jennifer said. “I knew I had some curvature, I just didn’t understand [how much], and I never really thought about it. But looking at the screen, it literally looked like a snake was my spine, and I was shocked.”

Jennifer, now 50, had been living with severe scoliosis since she was a child. It was never corrected, but it never stopped her from living an active life. That is, until about five years ago when her back pain became a daily dose of aggravation. Doctors recommended surgery then, but she put it off and began to travel. Eventually, she landed in Lucca, a city in central Italy, lush with hills and walking trails. There, she fell in love with multiday, long-distance walks.

But, the walks did not come without consequences.

Jennifer’s scoliosis continued to cause pain, and she knew it was time to return to the U.S. and see a doctor. She and her husband moved to Louisville, and a family friend recommended Charles H. Crawford III, M.D., orthopedic spine surgeon with Norton Leatherman Spine.

“Norton Leatherman Spine has a more than 50-year history of being a world-renowned, leading spine center,” Dr. Crawford said. “I’m fortunate to work with my partners and in a facility that is widely recognized as one of the leading spine surgery centers in the world. The many decades of research and experience with training future spine surgeons ensures that we are providing the best spine surgery care possible.”

After three visits, several rounds of discussions and hours of research, Jennifer decided to have surgery on January 7, 2022.

“If I want to keep up with that lifestyle, I’m going to have to do something,” Jennifer said. “That was the decision point. He told me that I could get back to my life, and I trusted him — and I didn’t think about it again.”

Jennifer needed two incisions, one in the top and one in the bottom of her back. Her surgery lasted more than six hours, requiring four rods, eight hooks and 26 screws to straighten her spine and correct her scoliosis.

She walked out of surgery full of metal, but was pain-free in weeks.

“I’m not going to say there weren’t some dark days, some dark hours,” Jennifer said. “But the pain was not there even after coming off of pain medicines, and I knew, at that point, that this was absolutely going to be the best life that I could have.”

Back to the trails

At Jennifer’s three-month postoperative checkup, Dr. Crawford medically cleared her to restart her walks, and she immediately took advantage. She and her husband flew out West to hike the national parks. Then, they flew to Mexico to hike Chichén Itzá. She came out of the trips unscathed, and continued to push her body’s boundaries.

In September 2022, Jennifer and her husband completed their longest walk yet, a 100-mile hike along Hadrian’s Wall in northern England.

“There were some challenging days,” Jennifer said. “You know your mileage for the day, mentally how far you’re going that day. But there are things off the trail — museums, Roman sites — and we didn’t want to miss a thing. So a 17-mile day ended up at 21 miles. It wears on you mentally, but physically it was nothing.”

Treating the whole patient

Jennifer credits her success to Dr. Crawford, who not only performed a successful surgery, but guided her through the process in a way that allowed her to feel comfortable.

“I knew the surgery was great; I was fixed,” she said. “[Dr. Crawford] has a good read on patients, and he read me the minute I walked in there. He knew I needed more information, and it was going to take some time, and he gave me both.”

“Changing somebody’s life like this is a big responsibility,” Dr. Crawford said. “When you see a patient like Jennifer who’s done so well and has really benefited from your knowledge and skills, it’s a huge reward and reminds us all why we became doctors in the first place.”

Now, Jennifer and her husband have more hikes planned. They plan to walk Ben Nevis, the highest mountain in Scotland, and eventually work their way up to travel the Via Francigena, a 1,000-mile trail from Canterbury, England, to Apulia, Italy.

It’s a journey that five years ago may have been impossible, but now seems like a walk in the park. “Decide where you want to be later on, and talk to a surgeon about what you need to do now to get there,” Jennifer said. “It’s not a decision you can make on your own or read on the internet and decide; it really takes the professionalism of a team like Dr. Crawford’s to walk you through what the surgery looks like and walk you through how you get back to your own life.”

The post A lifetime of scoliosis won’t stop this woman from hiking trails around the world appeared first on Norton Healthcare.

The first step is diagnosis. Your health care provider typically can get all the necessary information from a physical examination.

“We look at your ability to stand, sit down and walk,” said Kathryn J. McCarthy, M.D., spine surgeon with Norton Leatherman Spine. “We might check your reflexes and strength. In some cases, we might need to dig deeper with other tests like an X-ray.”

Treating back pain without surgery

Once the general cause of your back pain is determined, there are many nonsurgical options, including:

• Medication: This could be a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) such as ibuprofen or naproxen, or muscle relaxants.
• Heat and ice therapy: Ice packs, warm compresses and heating pads also may relieve discomfort.
• Exercise and physical therapy: These methods can increase flexibility, strengthen the muscles of the core and back, and improve posture. You can learn to avoid triggering back pain by correctly performing exercises without overworking the muscles.
• Complementary therapies: These treatments include massage, acupuncture and meditation, and have been shown to improve symptoms.

Back surgery to treat chronic back pain

“Sometimes we try all the nonsurgical options, and there is still no relief,” Dr. McCarthy said. “When those methods have been exhausted, it might be time to discuss surgical interventions.”

You should spend time talking to your health care provider about what might be the best course of treatment for you and your specific type of chronic back pain.

The post Chronic neck and back pain appeared first on Norton Healthcare.

“One-sided back pain is fairly common,” said Kimathi W. Doss , M.D., neurosurgeon and spine surgeon with Norton Leatherman Spine .

Causes of lower right back pain

Minor tissue injuries, including muscle strain, can cause lower back pain, tenderness, swelling or a muscle spasm. These types of injury typically feel better with rest, with application of ice or with over-the-counter pain relievers such as ibuprofen or acetaminophen.

A spine injury or lower back conditions such as herniated discs , osteoarthritis , spondylolisthesis , spinal stenosis or another abnormality of the spine can cause lower right back pain.

Chronic pain conditions such as fibromyalgia or myofascial pain syndrome can cause pain in many parts of the body such as the lower back.

Underlying conditions including appendicitis, gallbladder inflammation, kidney infection, tumor, liver issues, pelvic inflammatory disease or urinary tract infection also also can be lower back pain causes.

When to see a doctor for pain on the lower right side of the back

“Lower back pain is common, and we will do a thorough interview first,” Dr. Doss said. “We will ask questions about how long you’ve had the pain, if it’s dull or stabbing and if you have other symptoms with the pain.”

If you have any of the following less common symptoms, seek care from a health care provider immediately . They could be signs of an urgent illness:

• Sharp, intense pain in the right side of your lower back or lower abdomen that is accompanied by nausea, vomiting or fever
• Bowel or bladder pain or dysfunction that comes with sharp pain, weakness, numbness or tingling in the lower body

How is lower right back pain treated?

“Treatment depends entirely on the condition causing the pain,” Dr. Doss said.

Pain relief can come from:

• Medications such as muscle relaxers or pain medicine
• Back braces
• Physical therapy stretching or exercise programs
• Complementary therapies such as massage or acupuncture
• Surgical treatment

Back pain can interfere with your day to day life, but there are specialists who can help you feel better.

The post What’s this lower right back pain? appeared first on Norton Healthcare.

Other conditions may not be an emergency, but warrant evaluation by a health care professional. Often, the cause of weakness or pain in the legs when walking is a narrowing of the space around nerves that carry signals to the lower part of the body. When symptoms affect your legs, the condition is typically lumbar spinal stenosis.

The spinal cord is a bundle of nerves that runs from the brain down your back, with nerves branching outward to nearby parts of the body. Bone — vertebrae — and other tissue surround and protect the spinal cord and other nerves. With aging, bone spurs can develop that narrow the space for the nerves, putting pressure on them. The result can be weakness and often numbness, along with leg and back pain when walking, climbing stairs or other activities that involve moving while upright.

“Spinal stenosis typically develops later in life, but some patients can be born with congenital spinal stenosis that can produce symptoms at a younger age,” said Kirk Owens, M.D., orthopedic spine surgeon with Norton Leatherman Spine.

Spinal stenosis most often develops in the lower back. When it happens in the neck, symptoms can include neck pain, numbness or tingling that radiates down the arms into the hands, and weakness in the arms, hands or fingers.

For many, the weakness in the legs starts when walking or when they first stand up. Pain may start in the buttocks and radiate down to the feet. This should be distinguished from pain that starts in the feet and then radiates up the legs, which can be caused by inadequate blood flow to the feet.

“A classic sign of lumbar spinal stenosis is pain and weakness in the legs when walking,” Dr. Owens said. “Often, symptoms improve when the patient stops walking, leans forward while standing or walking, or sits down. These positional changes help to relieve pressure on the nerves.”

Weakness in the legs while walking helps differentiate spinal stenosis from a herniated disc, which is more likely to result in sciatica pain shooting down one leg or another whether moving around or not.

Physical therapy to strengthen the back muscles and improve posture is the first line of treatment along with anti-inflammatory medication, according to Dr. Owens. In severe cases, your medical provider may recommend surgery. The procedure — lumbar laminectomy — removes parts of the bone tissue impinging on the nerves and has a high success rate.

The post Weakness in the legs when walking can be a sign of spinal stenosis appeared first on Norton Healthcare.

Patients with scoliosis and other conditions typically need multiple images to follow the progression of their condition and, if surgery is needed, to plan the surgery and monitor results.

With the help of a $300,000 grant from the Norton Children’s Hospital Foundation with support from the PACCAR Foundation, the EOS system recently was installed at Norton Healthcare Pavilion in downtown Louisville.

EOS offers 50% to 85% less radiation than traditional X-rays and 95% less radiation than basic computed tomography (CT) scans. EOS achieves the combination of low dose and high definition by narrowing the radiation into narrow, parallel beams.

Reducing radiation exposure is particularly beneficial for children requiring frequent imaging. The Micro Dose feature further reduces radiation exposure, offering pediatric full-spine images from the front and side at a dose that’s equivalent to only a week’s worth of natural radiation.

“We are particularly excited to have this system installed, as it demonstrates our commitment to patient-focused solutions, as well as patients’ health and safety,” said John R. Dimar, M.D., orthopedic spine surgeon with Norton Leatherman Spine.

Unlike many other imaging technologies, EOS can capture images while the patient is upright and bearing weight, rather than lying down. The weight-bearing position allows physicians to evaluate posture more accurately and better understand the relationship between the spine, pelvis and lower limbs.

The machine is adjustable for height, and patients may stand, sit, bend, squat or sit, depending on the area of evaluation. 3D models of the patient’s unique anatomy make for more precise diagnoses and can be used for developing customized surgical plans.

The post Low-dose radiation system provides 2D and 3D images of spine appeared first on Norton Healthcare.