Patient Interview with Kate Baldwin from Canada

Okay. I herniated L4-L5 when I was 21. And I’ve had chronic back issues since then, so about 25 years of trying to maintain and rehabilitate on my own, doing athletic therapy, massage, chiropractor, bone scans, personal trainers in the gym, nothing was helping me. Eventually, decided that it was time to look into potential options. I knew I didn’t really want to have surgery, and I knew that fusion was a possibility in Canada, and I wasn’t really keen on that. I feel like this just landed on my lap. I heard about this motion preserving option in Germany, and investigated that. And here I am today, three months post-surgery of an L5-S1 ADR on June 5^th.

It was impeccable. I thought it was in an all-inclusive vacation, because everything was taken care of for me. It was very low stress. And with regards to accommodations and the journey itself, I was picked up in a taxi right from the airport. I was delivered back to the airport in a taxi, and in-between all that, everything was taken care of. It was amazing. Care was off the radar. Rehabilitation at the Medicos Center, we don’t have anything like that in Canada, it’s so unfortunate. It was amazing. And I didn’t actually want to come home.

Absolutely, yeah. You know what, it was life-altering, it changed my life. I feel like I have my life back, and I’ve had people tell me that I’m a totally different person. I’m happy, I’m glowing. And prior to surgery, they often wondered, because I looked like I had a grimace on my face all the time. And unbeknownst to them, I was dealing with pain, and of course I probably was grimacing, unbeknownst to me, too. So really cool to hear them say that they could see the change in me after surgery. I could feel the change, because when you deal with pain that long, it ultimately affects your whole body. And yeah, it's not fun.

Thank you.