Mary Borgschulte was too young to feel so old. Borgschulte, a pediatric nurse from Creve Coeur, Mo., was experiencing debilitating back pain that made it too painful to care for her tiny patients.
"I got to the point where I couldn''t even care for my family, drive a car or work – I was basically immobile," recalls Borgschulte.
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Borgschulte had suffered from back pain from time-to-time, but this time it wasn't going away.
After consulting with a local neurosurgeon who told her surgery wasn''t an option for treating her degenerative disk disease, she tried physical therapy, chiropractic care and even acupuncture. After six months of therapy, the pain was still intense.
"I remember thinking to myself that I wasn''t going to live this way," says Borgschulte. "I was told plenty of people younger than me were in more pain, and surgery wasn''t going to solve my problem," she adds.
Her local neurosurgeon did one thing that Borgschulte greatly appreciates. He suggested she have a second opinion, and gave her several names, one of which was Neill Wright, MD, Washington University spinal neurosurgeon at Barnes-Jewish Hospital.
Dr. Wright did not concur with Borgschulte''s original diagnosis of disk degeneration. "It wasn''t merely degenerating, there was no disk left— it was basically bone-on-bone friction causing enormous pain."
Dr. Wright performed a spinal fusion in March 2004. The collapsed disc between the fourth and fifth lumbar bones was removed, and the two vertebrae fused together. "Although back surgery is always a last resort, after physical therapy and other conservative treatments fail to help, in the right patient it can mean the difference between disability and returning to work," says Dr. Wright.
Dr. Wright and his colleagues in spinal neurosurgery, Paul Santiago, MD, and Todd Stewart, MD, perform approximately 600-700 spinal surgeries each year and treat problems of the cervical, thoracic and lumbosacral spine and spinal cord.
After a recovery period of several months, Borgschulte noticed relief from the pain that had been plaguing her for months. While she''s no longer nursing at the bedside – the lifting and bending puts too much stress on her back – Borgschulte is back to her nursing career and keeping up with her busy family. "I feel strong now, I exercise three times a week at the Y and I''m able to do everything I used to," she adds.