Dr. Camel: I am doing so well! I have truly not felt this well in as long as I can remember. Having the spinal fusion surgery has changed my life in so many ways. I have lost 50 pounds since my surgery and resuming normal activity. I have ZERO pain whatsoever. I haven’t even had so much as a headache since my surgery in July. I feel about 10-15 years younger, minimally. I can never thank Dr. Camel, physical therapist Fey and all of the associates at ONS who helped me to return to a “better than normal” state of health and well-being. I know you guys do this every day; but to me, this was a once-in-a-lifetime “event” that has permanently changed my life for the better in myriad ways. THANK YOU ALL, once again! – CM (Spinal Fusion)
Dr. Fiore and Dr. Apostolides – When sharp pain shooting down my leg began to wake me up at night, I was very worried that the decades of heavy work-related travel combined with sitting behind a desk for very long hours were catching up with me. An MRI and exam revealed that I had severe spinal stenosis, scoliosis and degenerative disc disease. A New Yorker for 30 years, I was inclined to believe the notion that if you had a medical problem, you had to see a ‘top surgeon in the city.’ So I went to that top doctor and had spine surgery at a major New York hospital, which was not successful. My problems worsened.
In the meantime, my father, age 85, developed a serious spinal problem that required a 10-hour, complicated spinal fusion. Furthermore, he had quadruple bypass surgery a year and a half before, making him a high risk patient. That was when I met Dr. Amory Fiore, the talented neurosurgeon who performed the difficult surgery on my father that rescued him from severe pain and restored his ability to walk.
So when my own spine condition deteriorated two years later, I turned to my father’s surgeon in Greenwich for help. Dr. Fiore said I would need a spinal fusion on the same disc that was operated on in New York. He and his colleague Dr. Paul Apostolides did the surgery, and this time I recovered beautifully. I did my PT religiously, walked a mile with my dog each day, and within months I was completely pain free.
Eighteen months later, I started to have pain in my lower spine. An MRI showed instability in two more vertebra and disc degeneration. Dr. Fiore said I would need another surgery to fix the problem. This time they did a triple spinal fusion. Surprisingly, I was up and out of bed and doing stairs at Greenwich Hospital the next afternoon. Again, my recovery went smoothly, and since then I have had no pain and have regained complete mobility. I have even played 18 holes of golf with my surgeon. Now, if only Dr. Fiore could come up with a surgery to fix my golf game…
I am so thankful to Dr. Fiore, Dr. Apostolides and the ONS therapists for not only giving me my life back but allowing me to have more fun in my life too. – ES (Spine)
Dr. Simon– For two years, C.D. of Trumbull, CT dealt with gradually developing pain in her right hip that ran down to her foot that progressively eroded her quality of life. At 66, she had to give up her job as a nurse that she dearly loved and became virtually housebound. Being a medical professional, she honed in on the purported experts in her condition, who emphatically told her that there was nothing to be done for her. She underwent epidural injections in her back, tried to manage the pain with medications and even tried acupuncture. Nothing seemed to work. In fact, her doctor told her that her condition was “permanent and chronic” and that “there wasn’t a surgeon around that could do anything to help.”
CD was referred to neurosurgeon Dr. Scott Simon to have an electric stimulation devise implanted into her back to treat the pain. During her visit to Dr. Simon, he reviewed her MRI and discovered that the quality of the MRI was so inferior that he doubted that an accurate diagnosis could have been made using them. He ordered a new MRI to be taken immediately and asked her to return to his office afterward. After reviewing the images he told her, “I can help you.”
C.D. had a degenerative spondylolisthesis, a condition where one vertebra shifts out in front of another, causing back pain and leg pain due to nerve compression. On May 9, 2011, Dr. Simon and Dr. Paul Apostolides performed a minimally invasive laminectomy, fusion, and fixation to decompress the nerves and stabilize the spine. Today C.D. is 100% pain free and has regained her life. “Dr. Simon has literally given me my life back,” she said. – CD (Spine)
Dr. Sahler: I want to thank Dr. Sahler for the tremendous job he did giving my daughter an injection and taking the time and effort to have a heart to heart talk with her. In my experience, most doctors wouldn’t take the time to do that, usually next in line is right at the door. She really had a connection with him and I wanted to make sure all of the time that he gave us was very much appreciated. – DS (Spine)
