Conditions + Treatments
Spine Fusion
My journey to recovery is one I never imagined I’d experience. I grew up in Michigan and graduated from the University of Michigan. Soon after, I moved south to attend law school in Atlanta.
As an attorney, my career took me into the biotech sector, advising medical product companies, but my personal life was forever changed by a single moment more than twenty years ago.
After building a new, two-story home in Cincinnati, Ohio I had a freak accident that forever changed my life.
While moving into my new home, I was carrying moving boxes upstairs. My hands were full when I slipped from the top step, tumbled down the stairs and landed hard on my spine at the bottom of the stairwell.
At first, all I could think was, “Did I just break my back?”—and the pain that followed would stay with me for decades. The neurosurgeon who initially treated me in Montgomery did not recommend surgical intervention for a variety of reasons, primarily because "my break" was anatomically in an area of my spinal column that would be difficult to surgically repair.
Despite seeing neurosurgeons and managing my pain with steroid injections, my back always hurt, and my spine remained crooked.
For years, pain management kept me going, but in 2023, while on a long-awaited Mediterranean cruise, my back pain and discomfort became so unbearable that I couldn’t even leave the ship to visit the island of Santorini. My pain was so severe that I was admitted into the cruise ship’s hospital and received treatment there just to manage the pain.
When I got home to Montgomery, the routine pain management treatments I had been using for nearly two decades to alleviate my pain suddenly stopped working. Doubting both my doctor and my own body, I realized something had to change. That’s when I started searching for a real solution.
While I continued to research online for a doctor, I had a conversation with a cousin who lives in Anniston, Alabama who suggested need to consider Andrews Sports Medicine in Birmingham because that’s where all the pro athletes go and they have a great reputation.
Soon after, while on a work trip flying to Boston, I happened to mention Andrews Sports Medicine to a fellow passenger. That’s when another passenger chimed in and said, “That’s where all the Boston Red Sox players receive their medical care.”
Hearing about the clinic’s reputation for treating elite athletes gave me the added confidence to pursue treatment there. I called Andrews Sports Medicine and shared my situation with one of the appointment schedulers. Based on my situation, she recommended and assisted me in scheduling an appointment with orthopaedic spine surgeon, Dr. Daniel Kim.
At my initial appointment, Dr. Kim showed me my x-rays, and plainly explained that a portion of my spine was “bone on bone.” I knew it was time for something drastic.
We discussed spinal fusion surgery, and I finally agreed after praying on it and reflecting on my long journey with pain. Dr. Kim performed two surgeries on me in July 2024, and aside from a temporary ankle injury during recovery, the results were beyond what I ever hoped for.
My pain is gone. I’ve lost 75 pounds, I feel like I’ve found the fountain of youth, and for the first time in a long while, I look forward to getting back to things I love—like golfing with friends.
Through this all, Dr. Kim and his team, including Eleanor Burke, PA-C were always respectful, attentive, and trustworthy. Their care changed my life, and I am so grateful to be writing a true comeback story—one where hope, healing, and a will to move forward finally won.
