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JORDAN PYSZ / iFoundMyDoctor.com
Four days after undergoing transforaminal lumbar interbody fusion surgery, a less invasive form of spinal fusion surgery, Sharon’s back pain was gone for good.
They may never catch on quite like hoodies and ripped jeans, but custom-made, leather-backed, needlepoint belts are fashion accessories long considered hip around Lexington, Kentucky.
“They’re popular in South Carolina, too, and I actually found some in a store in Martha’s Vineyard off Massachusetts,” says Sharon Gorgas. “But it’s mostly in Kentucky where you’ll find them. I know it’s kind of weird, but if you’re from Kentucky, you know how popular they are.”
Few can attest to the popularity of those belts better than Sharon. After all, she’s made hundreds, if not thousands of them, many sporting the blue and white colors and logos of the hometown University of Kentucky Wildcats.
“For 20 years, I stitched those belts for a store in Lexington,” she says. “The people who owned the store didn’t know how to do needlepoint, so I did that for them and got paid for each belt that I made. It worked out well because I love to needlepoint.”
Sharon, 76, has moved on from that job, but she still does needlepoint and will gladly stitch a personalized belt for a friend or relative. Recently, she needed help stitching together a solution for agonizing back pain.
“It was about two years ago that the pain started, and the only good thing about it was that it didn’t last very long,” Sharon says. “The pain would last for maybe 10 or 15 minutes, and if I sat down for that amount of time, it would usually go away.
“But that pain would come on out of nowhere, and it would travel down my left leg and sometimes, when it got real bad, it would go into my left foot and cause my left foot to go numb. When that happened, well, it made it hard to walk.
“At first, I just kind of pushed through it, but the pain was excruciating sometimes. It was like someone was driving a railroad spike through my leg. That’s why I always had to sit down and take a break until the pain went away, so I knew I had to do something about it.”
Sharon suffered through a similar situation with her right leg a few years earlier. She corrected that problem through fusion surgery, in which vertebrae are grafted together to stabilize the spine and reduce pain.
This time, however, Sharon wanted to avoid surgery, so she devoted 18 months to a variety of alternatives, including steroid injections, pain medications and at least two rounds of physical therapy.
When none of those treatments provided the desired results, Sharon’s primary care physician referred her to Gregory P. Gebauer, MD, of Advanced Orthopedic Center.
Degenerative Narrowing
During his initial evaluation, Dr. Gebauer discovered that the cause of Sharon’s pain was spinal stenosis, a degenerative narrowing of the spinal canal that compresses nerves and can cause varying degrees of pain, tingling, weakness and numbness.
To resolve the problem, Dr. Gebauer recommended an extension of the fusion surgery Sharon underwent a few years earlier. This procedure, Dr. Gebauer explained, would target the vertebrae below those treated during the initial surgery.
“The procedure I recommended is called a transforaminal lumbar interbody fusion, or TLIF,” the doctor details. “It’s designed to relieve the pressure on the nerves by opening the space around the discs where the nerves are being pinched.”
-Dr. Gebauer
During a transforaminal procedure, the surgeon accesses the spinal canal through foramen, which are small openings between vertebrae where nerves pass through as they branch off the spinal cord.
“Once we’re inside the body, we remove the degenerated spinal disc and place a spacer and some bone-grafting material into the space,” the doctor educates. “We then place some screws and rods into the space to hold it all together and stabilize the bones.
“The spacer, which we refer to as a cage, opens the space between the discs. That takes the pressure off the nerves by permanently restoring the discs to normal height or something close to normal height.”
The TLIF procedure is less invasive than most other fusion surgeries because the work is performed through an incision less than three inches long. It can be done on an outpatient basis but is typically performed at a hospital with an overnight stay for observation.
“A lot of people have a lot of misconceptions about fusion surgeries,” notes Dr. Gebauer. “The belief is that they’re all big, morbid procedures; but thanks to improved technology and technique, we can do them through smaller incisions, with quicker recoveries and less pain.
“These are not the kind of fusion procedures that people had 30 years ago, where you had to undergo these invasive operations. The science behind it has come a long way so the procedures are much less involved, and they’re a lot more effective.”
JORDAN PYSZ / iFoundMyDoctor.com
Sharon Gorgas
Less Invasive
Thankful for the less invasive nature of TLIF and the likelihood that it would provide a permanent remedy for her back and leg pain, Sharon accepted the doctor’s recommendation and underwent the procedure last October.
The results, she says, have been extraordinary.
“My back pain and leg pain are definitely gone,” she enthuses. “That’s the best thing. I still have some numbness in my toes, but Dr. Gebauer says that’s because the nerves in there still have to regenerate, which could take as long as a year.
“Other than that, I feel great. And like I said, it’s only my toes that are numb. It’s not my whole foot, which used to be the problem, so I can walk and be active and do normal things again like I used to. I just have to be a little careful is all.”
Sharon was amazed by how quickly her surgery began to heal and back pain diminished.
“I had the surgery on October 2, and after four days, I would not have been able to tell you I had back surgery,” she exudes. “That’s how great I felt after just a few days, and I didn’t have to take any pain pills or anything afterward either.
“As far as I’m concerned, the results of my TLIF procedure have been phenomenal, and I can’t thank Dr. Gebauer enough for his help. He’s a wonderful doctor, and I would highly recommend him to someone who’s having back issues like I had.”
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