One local woman suffered from pain so severe it could knock her down for 24 hours at a time.
Neurosurgeon, Dr. Greg Thompson performed surgery that changed her life. Laurie McCarty lives an
active life, motorcycle rides, NASCAR time with family and friends but for years
pain got in her way. >>I feel like I've had headaches but they weren't really headaches,
they it was always at the back of my neck and it's bothered me for years and years but I would say
got worse over the last five six and then the last two was really bad. I would get them maybe once
a week and then towards the end I was getting them there's oftentimes when I'd have three or
four times a week. Sometimes it even lasts like 24 hours and it would just the back of my neck
would just hurt. I went to physical therapy, I had cortisone injections and they basically
told me that it was arthritis that it was just something I had to live with >>In February 2020,
her sister encouraged her to get an MRI after experiencing similar pain. >>When I went to see Dr
Thompson he looked at my MRI and said no, whatever you've been doing won't help because it is discs
c5 and 6 and explain to me what they were going to do and I was just so happy that finally I found
a doctor that understood me and was going to take me in the right direction.
>>There are seven bones that make up the neck and in her circumstance between five and six
it looked like there was a lot of wear and tear. A lot of wearing
of that joint space or that disc space and we were seeing bone spurs which often will put pressure on
the spinal cord or the spinal nerves. The disc space is collapsing, that's the disc between the
vertebra and as that collapse that tends to crimp or put pressure on the nerve channels.
In conjunction with that it usually causes bulging of the discs and the bone spurs are a method of
the body to try and stabilize this space. >>Dr. Greg Thompson told Lori she was a good candidate
for cervical spine surgery. >>He was so reassuring very calming that I just trusted him, I knew that
I had gone this long, I'm finally on the right path, I finally got to the right doctor
i'm pushing through and he made me feel very very comfortable in
going through with the surgery knowing that even though there were risks the benefit was
so much better. >>The surgery is fairly well tolerated in operation here in the neck
and we just work through normal anatomic channels and so we don't have to cut a lot of muscle.
There's typically not a lot of pain with the operation. The most common complaint we get
after this surgery is really swallowing difficulty because we have to retract the swallowing or the
esophagus out of the way temporarily to do the work. While we're doing a big surgery
around the spinal cord and blood vessels and and the esophagus and so forth the patients wake up
and they don't feel like they've been put through a big surgery because we're not cutting a lot of
muscle out of the way >>After years of that pain she was ready for surgery. in July. >>I
remember waking up in bed with the brace on but I wasn't in pain, I was fine, it's a miracle. I
do believe that the way I'm healing and as fast as I'm healing and with the way it looks it was
a blessing to have happen in my life. I'm so glad I found the right doctor that somebody
referred me to the neurosurgeon even though I had a neurologist. Laurie's scar is fading.
She's ready to jump back into that busy lifestyle. To know that every day when I woke up,
I didn't have to wonder well at some point today is my head going to hurt. >>This time
pain free >>I haven't hurt since um I haven't had any twinge like, oh no, I'm gonna get a headache.
It's really gone. >>You may have noticed Lori was wearing a brace and portions of that video that
was just temporary. Her only other long-term care involves periodic imaging to make sure everything
is fusing correctly. Recently Liz got to sit down with Dr. Thompson to talk more about Lori's
surgery. >>Joining us now is, Dr. Gregory Thompson neurosurgeon at Penn State Health St. Joseph.
We're so glad we found you too! Lori mentioned several things she had tried before surgery,
can we talk a little bit about that and is surgery a last option? >>Usually we like a
period of non-operative care before we try surgery as a treatment option. Mainly because surgery
carries more risk and so forth but in general with patients with neck discomfort or degeneration of
the cervical spine, we try physical therapy, some anti-inflammatory medications, heat, ice,
massage at times, sometimes chiropractic treatments and so forth
and then at other times we might also try an injection in the neck to try to ease some of the
pain and discomfort and inflammation in the nerves and so forth. So, for most people they'll respond
to one or more of those forms of treatment and a few patients will then not respond and need
surgery. We also use surgery as a last resort because it carries more risk and then surgery
requires that we fuse or link a few spinal bones together and the fusion limits your mobility and
range of motion after surgery and it also takes time to heal like three months or so for the
bones to knit themselves together and during that healing process you know, the recovery can be for
some patients a little prolonged. >>Lori was released from the hospital the next day, the
day after her surgery is that typical? >>For this operation it is typical and you know because we're
working in and around the swallowing and breathing tube, one of the concerns we have is for swelling
of those structures and being able to swallow after surgery or certainly being able to breathe
after surgery. On very rare occasions someone will develop a blood clot they'll be bleeding from the
operative site and that will put pressure on the swallowing and breathing tube. So,
we really just monitor patients mostly for breathing and swallowing issues. We also have the
ability to give them a few doses of antibiotics after surgery to lessen the risk of infection
and then can monitor their blood pressure and their pain control and make sure they're
adequately treated with reference to pain medication. >>Before we go, what is the
typical prognosis following cervical spine surgery and will Laurie have a pain-free future? We hope!
>>I think Lori is going to do quite well and have a pain-free future
and I do think it depends of course on the diagnosis but in Lori's circumstance when we fix
one disc space that has a very high prognosis and very good prognosis. So, for neck pain in
that setting, it's 70 to 80 percent effective for arm pain shooting arm pain it's more like
80 to 90 percent effective and so forth. One of the concerns we have long term with the fusion
procedure is, over time it can cause strain or stress around the disk spaces that are not fused
and then so periodically we may need to monitor if she has a flare of neck pain or arm pain.
But other symptoms would be headache, patients frequently get, of course shooting arm pain,
weakness or numbness in the hand or the arm. Some patients will describe numb clumsiness
to the hands and difficulty with walking or balance. >>Well, we learned about tech neck which
means it's another great reason to put down your phone right now! Thank you so much, Dr Thompson.