Matt K. never expected to be in the worst pain of his life on the first day of his honeymoon.
But from the very start of his Caribbean cruise with his new bride, Matt experienced a numbness in his hands alongside “an excruciating” arm pain.
“It was crippling from my perspective,” Matt recalled. “So, the whole trip of seven days was spent trying to figure out what I did wrong.”
Once he was back home, the pain didn’t go away.
“We literally tried everything we could conceive of,” Matt noted. This included swapping out pillows, using hot patches, switching to cold patches and even testing a Russian cupping technique. Nothing was successful in eliminating his pain.
Eventually, Matt received a referral from his primary care provider to Hillsboro Medical Center Neurosurgery Clinic.
He was diagnosed with severe cervical stenosis, a condition that occurs when the space around the spinal cord is too narrow. This tightened space can irritate the spinal cord and the surrounding nerves.
Matt and his wife discussed his treatment options with Hillsboro Medical Center neurosurgeon Dr. Barbara E. Lazio and he decided to undergo cervical fusion surgery.
“We were fortunate to be able to take the pressure off Matt’s spinal cord and nerves before he became even weaker,” Dr. Lazio noted. “While discectomy and fusion sounds like a big operation, most like Matt, can go home the day after surgery. ”
Matt and his wife were excited to go home after his successful surgery.
As someone who had never had surgery before, let alone a broken bone, Matt didn’t know what to expect his first time being admitted to a hospital.
“Everybody was kind, everybody was so helpful and more importantly, the pain stopped,” Matt said. “When I woke up, it was just gone.”
He felt so great that less than 24 hours post-surgery, he told his care team he was ready to run laps around the hospital.
“It is quite miraculous in my opinion to actually have pain when you go to sleep and when you wake up, there’s no pain,” Matt shared.
Today, Matt is a year post-surgery and has a clean bill of health. Inspired by his surgery to take greater ownership of his health, he has lost approximately 60 pounds.
“It changed my life,” Matt emphasized. He’s grateful to now focus on growing his local discount store business with his wife and is looking forward to traveling with her internationally to visit family.
“With the pain, I couldn’t see past making it though the next five minutes” Matt shared. “We can see the future. . .It is such an amazing time in our lives.”
One year after his surgery, Matt proudly threw out the first pitch at the Hillsboro Hops baseball game!
