Every week, I consult with potential patients on a second opinion of having spinal surgery. The potential complications of spinal surgery have usually been explained to the patient once an appointment is made. Some of these complications or side effects can be deadly, and some may affect the patient’s quality of life so that they may not be able to continue their daily activities like they had even with the pain prior to the surgery.
Of course, not every spinal surgery fails, but those patients aren’t requesting my care to stop the symptoms that the surgery caused. Those who’ve had spinal surgery, and came out either worse, or the same without pain relief are those I’m talking about. I share these stories with patients who are considering spinal surgery.
The bad results are out there, and I believe patients have the right to know what I see every day in my office. Like the title of my article, I give them the other side of the story. Options that are available to them that work in my office every day. In this article, I’m sharing an exciting story of Eileen, a 69-year-old woman who made the decision to cancel her neck surgery and is feeling better than she has in quite a while. She is now no longer needing surgery.
Please tell me about your condition, what symptoms you had, and the timeline of what was done.
I had weakness in my left hand and tingling and numbness in my left arm. It had been going on since October 2019 and continued. At that time, the pain was about a 7 out of 10. (10 is the worst pain, 0 is no pain)
In 2019, I went to a pain doctor. He prescribed gabapentin and physical therapy. I was up to approximately 1800 mg per day, with no relief, so I stopped after a couple of months. Then I had an exam, and it showed disk herniations, significant atrophy of some muscles in my left hand. I was unable to close my grip with my left hand.
I had an MRI done of my neck, and it showed degenerative joint disease, spondylolisthesis, stenosis, and an extruded disk.
In July of 2020, I had 3 epidurals, with no relief, so I stopped them. Nothing else was offered to me.
I then received a needle EMG in January this year, that showed abnormal neurological activity throughout my neck muscles and nerves.
Is this when you finally saw a spine surgeon?
Yes, and he recommended surgery on March 15. I read all of the risks of the surgery, as there’s a paragraph of them on the pre-surgical papers he gave me. Some of them include death from anesthesia, blindness, pulmonary embolism, deep vein thrombosis (DVT), spinal cord damage and more. He also reported that he had discussed the goals of the surgery. Pain relief was not one of the goals. If the goal is not to relieve the neck pain, why have the surgery with those serious risks? He also reported that my radiculopathy had the possibility of being irreversible. Just before scheduling the surgery, the doctor asked me if I could live with this condition. I told him no, and that’s why he recommended the surgery.
You chose to get a second opinion from me, and how did that work out?
Once I realized the dangerous risks of surgery, and the fact that my neck pain may not be relieved, I decided to come into your office. I’d read your article on neck surgery, and your protocols made sense to me.
I came into your office for an initial consultation and exam on March 8, and your treatment plan included Cox Decompression Manipulation (NOT traditional chiropractic), acupuncture, and your other protocols. I started treatment in your office on March 11. It took a few weeks for the numbness and tingling in my left arm to go away. Things were going pretty well, and last Saturday, I felt numbness and tingling in my left arm, but not like it was before treatment started with you. I feel relief as time goes on, as most of the time I don’t have it.” Right now, it’s a 0 out of 10. I cancelled my surgery appointment after two treatments with you.
Are the treatments with acupuncture painful?
No, it was not painful, only some sensitivity in some of the points in the beginning.
Are you happy that you cancelled surgery?
Yes! Especially because I didn’t have to risk suffering from the dangerous side effects I mentioned earlier.
Would you recommend people who are considering or already booked for surgery to come in for the protocols I designed for this?
Absolutely! I can say the only downside is the number of weekly visits to get relief without surgery.
Eileen’s case has been one of the most challenging in my 26 years of practice as a certified Cox Decompression Manipulation Physician. Again, this is NOT traditional chiropractic, nor traditional decompression done on a machine. Eileen’s results were quite positive, and I was able to prevent her from the lengthy post-surgical down time and rehab as well. In about 6 weeks, she was able to get her life back, without pain. If you or anyone you know is considering spinal surgery, or is already scheduled, please call my office for a consultation first.
For any questions regarding my articles, please email me at:
[email protected]
Leisa-Marie Grgula, D.C.
Chiropractic Physician
Accurate Care Medical Wellness Center
18261 N Pima Rd. Suite 115
Scottsdale, AZ 85255
602-493-2228
