After falling from a building onto concrete, 44-year-old John Wieler suffered from back and leg pain that grew progressively worse and severely limited his ability to live a normal life. “I wasn’t able to lift very much or exercise or anything,” he recalls. “I was down to doing very little, actually.” No matter what he did, he couldn’t get comfortable due to the constant pain and numbness.
After four and a half years, John was ready to find some relief. He found the Spine Institute Northwest online, and he and his wife journeyed from their home in Manitoba, Canada to see Dr. Kamson.
Before coming to the Spine Institute Northwest, John’s average pain level was a 7, but he says, “certain days it would go up to a 9.” Within just hours of his minimally invasive lumbar decompression, however, he no longer had leg or ankle pain. “I had feeling in the bottom of my foot again, which I haven’t had for a long time,” he remembers. By the morning after his laser spine surgery, John’s pain level was down to a 2. “And that’s just from the pain from doing the surgery, not from actual back pain,” he explains.
John’s impression of minimally invasive spine surgery? “It means a minimum,” he laughs. “Minimum pain and minimum cutting.” After having suffered with intense pain for so long, John was at last heading back home — and back to enjoying life without chronic pain.
Hear why John and his wife recommend the Spine Institute Northwest: