Jeff's story
ALIF surgery, spinal decompression
After Jeff’s seven-hour hike, ‘Everything hurt except my back’
After hiking to an elevation of 14,000 feet this summer, Jeff was sore. Really sore. Pretty much everywhere, except for one place: the back that had been surgically repaired a year ago.
“Everything hurt except my back,” Jeff says of the seven-hour hike up the mountain at La Plata Peak in Colorado.
Jeff, at La Plata Peak in Colorado
It had been a long journey for Jeff. His back started hurting 10 years ago, and he tried to push ahead and delay any real treatment. Eventually, it morphed into a burning sensation that radiated into his upper legs. With Jeff’s work in landscaping construction, that meant lots of bending, twisting and lifting heavy things. At times, he could barely stand for more than five minutes. But still, he avoided seeking help.
Eventually, he relented and saw a chiropractor, who told him he probably had a stress fracture in his spine that had only gotten worse. When he didn’t get any relief, he was referred to Dr. Zach Plummer, a neurosurgeon at Mayfield Brain & Spine.
Jeff's imaging showing one of the vertebrae had slipped over the level below
Dr. Plummer looked at scans of Jeff’s spine and diagnosed the problem at the L4-L5 levels of his lower back, or lumbar spine. One of the vertebrae had slipped over the level below, a condition called spondylolisthesis. It was putting pressure on the nerves in the spine. Jeff tried physical therapy and pain injections, but that didn’t relieve his pain.
Dr. Plummer says Jeff progressed quickly to surgery because his symptoms had lasted so long. Even more important, it was worse when Jeff tried to curve or flatten his lower back, a motion called flexion. This indicated instability in that region of the spine.
“Jeff had already tried conservative measures, and nothing had relieved his pain,” Dr. Plummer says. “His scans showed that his spine was likely to continue to degenerate. We recommended surgery immediately to give him the best chance to get back to things he loves to do.”
Jeff's imaging following ALIF surgery
Dr. Plummer recommended an anterior lumbar interbody fusion, called ALIF, where he approached the damaged part of the spine through the front, removed the damaged disc from between the two vertebrae, then fused them together. After the ALIF, Dr. Plummer created space for the nerves, called decompression, approaching through the back and stabilizing the spine with rods and screws.
“The combination of ALIF surgery with decompression fills two needs,” he says. “First, it creates enough space on the nerves to take away the pressure that was causing the pain. Second, we stabilize the spine so that patients can be confident that the improvement in their quality of life will last.”
After the surgery, it was a slow recovery for Jeff. He felt some surgical pain, but his back pain was gone. He was up and moving around the very next day. After going home, he relaxed in his new recliner, getting up for a few minutes every hour and using a walker. Then he conquered the driveway. Then walking to a neighbor’s house and back. After a month, he was back to work – taking it easy at first, but eventually at full activity.
Jeff soon started taking some short hikes with his son. As he started to feel more like himself, Jeff says, “I needed a goal.”
Enter the La Plata hike: seven hours up the mountain, about five hours back down. It was only 13 months after the surgery, but Jeff finished it – and paid the price.
“Everybody was passing me, but I didn’t care,” he says. “My whole body was sore and my muscles were shot. My legs and calves were burning. It was pretty rough, but I made it. I bawled like a kid when I got to the top of the mountain.
“But even when I was most tired, my back did not hurt.”
~ Cliff Peale
Hope Story Disclaimer -"Jeff's Story" is about one patient's health-care experience. Please bear in mind that because every patient is unique, individual patients may respond to treatment in different ways. Results are influenced by many factors and may vary from patient to patient.
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