Patient Stories
Sutter Neurosurgery
Rael – Back on the Slopes
Rael was putting a piece of stone on a high shelf when she felt a twinge in her neck. An active 40-something woman who loved to ski, Rael was used to strained muscles and didn’t think much about the soreness in her neck that evening. When the pain increased instead of going away, Rael thought she had pinched a nerve and went to see her doctor, who sent her to a physical therapist.
“Physical therapy only made the pain worse,” said Rael. “I also practiced breathing, relaxation and focusing exercises — anything I thought might help me deal with the pain.”
In spite of everything she tried, the pain persisted and her once-active life slowed to an agonizing crawl. Three months after that first twinge, Rael underwent an MRI … The scan revealed a bulging disc pressing directly against the nerve roots of her spinal cord. Though glad to understand what was causing the pain, Rael also knew the most likely medical treatment would be to remove the disc and fuse her neck vertebrae, which would increase the risks of disease at other levels and potentially mean the end of skiing and many other activities she loved.
That December, Rael went to Cully Cobb, M.D., neurosurgeon and spine surgeon with Sutter Neuroscience Institute, and immediately knew she’d found the right patient-doctor fit … “Dr. Cobb doesn’t think of surgery as the first option, which made me feel good,” said Rael, “and he really understood how important mobility is to me. When he told me about the possibility of volunteering to be part of a study for a new artificial cervical disc, I knew he wouldn’t have suggested it unless he felt confident that it was the best solution for me. Even though I would be one of the first patients in the U.S. to get the device, Dr. Cobb, Sutter Institute for Medical Research research coordinator Kimberly Olsen-Wilson and the device manufacturer were so thorough about making sure I was a good candidate that I never felt apprehensive.”
Getting through the eight months it took to lay the groundwork for surgery proved to be much more difficult than the surgery. Rael when into surgery at eleven, woke up in recovery around two, and was standing up and walking by four o’clock. She went home the following morning and saw a daily improvement over the next three weeks. The mental exercises that helped her manage the pre-surgery pain also enabled Rael to manage the post-surgery pain with nothing more than ibuprofen.
“I hit a wall at three weeks,” Rael said, “but Dr. Cobb said that was part of the natural healing process my body was going through, so I just kept pushing through. By December I felt ready to ski again, but the doctors made me wait six months to ensure the new disc was firmly in place.” By the spring, six months after the surgery, Rael felt she had regained her pre-injury strength and stamina. The snow was gone for the year, but she was ready to go the following season.
“I feel as though I was never injured,” she said, adding, “I have no loss of mobility, no pain, no lingering issues — none at all.”
The five-year study requires Rael to get a yearly CT scan and X-rays to track her long-term healing, but it’s a sure bet that she’ll schedule those appointments before or after the ski season.