We received this letter from a patient of Dr. Guyer’s the other day and thought we would share. She had artificial disc replacement at her L5/S1 in 2010 after years of conservative treatment.
April 26, 2011
Dr. Guyer,
I wanted to express my sincere and heart-felt thanks to you and your staff for helping me get back to living a normal, pain-free life after suffering intense, debilitating lower back pain for nearly 10 years.
My pain was getting progressively worse, and at the young age of 44 I found myself unable to live a normal, quality life. Over time I was becoming more and more limited in what I could do without pain. Any kind of household tasks, exercise, playing with my children, gardening, grocery shopping, cooking, etc. was becoming unbearable. In fact, I started to live my life based on what I thought I could do without pain – and there became few options at all. When I could no longer sleep without severe pain, I knew something had to change. I only regret I waited so long.
The artificial disc replacement surgery you performed has changed my life dramatically. I am now 100% pain-free and have returned to all normal activities just 8 months after surgery. Every day I think about how fortunate I am to have escaped the permanent, chronic pain I was living with.
Thank you and your staff for helping me understand the procedure, and for the highest quality of patient care I received. I also appreciate the optimistic attitude you took with me, as well as the complete transparency when discussing with me the details of the procedure and giving me a sense of what the level of pain relief would be.
You advised that given my age and condition I would have at a minimum a 50% decrease in pain and be able to return to about half the activities I did before, but that the possibility existed I could exceed that minimum. I was in such pain I would have been happy with the 50% improvement, and I am beyond delighted that I have achieved 100% relief.
Living daily in pain for years is depressing and dark. I can’t tell you how nice it is to be free of that misery. Thank you for giving me my life back.
Sincerely,
Angela Snow
Have you been considering having artificial disc replacement or have you had it? Tell us your story!