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Disc Shmisc 2.1 - landmark case from patient's pov
This is a landmark case that makes us reevaluate everything we think we know about back pain.
Danny Fehsenfeld, a 30 year old actor, first hurt his lower back doing a fight scene in a commercial.
Entangled in wrestling maneuvers, his low back went out. The nurse on the set assured him
he'd be ok, and that he need not go to the hospital. He couldn't walk for a week, and like an
old man for a couple more. Being a tough guy, he never sought treatment, took ibuprofen here and there, and in a couple months his back felt fine again.
Several months later he was snow skiing. It was the end of the day and his legs were tired,
but you know, one more run. He went over a jump and upon landing his back went out
again, only this time he felt numbness and tingling into his testicles, and pain on urination.
This will, of course, send a guy to the doctor.
An MRI was taken showing a herniated disc at L5-S1 but it's severity was misread.
Here's a guy who has tried physical therapy, chiropractic, acupuncture, not that it didn't help some but it wasn't fixing his condition.
So he goes to the director of the spine institute at Cedar's Sinai in Los Angeles, the expert's expert and foo foo doctor to the stars, Dr Goldstein.
Dr Goldstein was surprised to see a large disc herniation nearly occluding the entire spinal canal.
If you have 13 mm of space for the spinal chord it's considered a surgical emergency, Danny had 5 mm. In some states it is illegal not to do surgery in such a case. Surgery was deemed imperative, that herniated disc was compressing the nerve roots leading into his testicles, and there was concern he'd done permanent nerve damage and recommended he see a urologist. (the urologist reported none)
Note * The spinal chord itself ends at around the level of the second lumbar vertebrae and
turns into a horse tail of nerve roots, or "cauda equina", that travel the remaining distance in
the spinal canal, and then exit between vertebrae at their respective levels. Thus chord
compression at the L5-S1 level is called compression of the cauda equina.
Surgery was scheduled but worker's compensation insurance wouldn't authorize to pay for
it, and he was sent for review to the workers comp doctor who said, "You know, it's my job
to say you don't need this surgery, but I agree with your doctor. You have one of the worst
MRI's I've ever seen. You could sneeze and go paralyzed for life! You must have this
surgery!"
This would scare the dickens out of most people, but Danny is amazingly self reliant and did his
own research of the medical literature. He found that herniated discs can shrink or disappear
on subsequent MRI's all on their own. He said if you talk with enough people who have
had disc surgery, you find it is no panacea and to be avoided if at all possible. So to satisfy
his own curiosity before having major back surgery at age 30, he insisted on and got a
second MRI.
He returns to consult with Dr Goldstein on the results of the second MRI and the doctor
greets him and says, "Congratulations! You must be feeling much better. The disc herniation is greatly reduced. Surgery is no longer necessary!"
Danny says, "Really? To be honest I still feel the same." "You mean you don't know what's
causing the numbness into my testicles?"
The doctor finally admits, "Danny, in our business there are no certainties".
Now this is the truth.
Doctors sell the disc theory as though it is fact, but it is not a fact.
Danny then found me. I'd come to understand some time ago a typical herniated disc was nothing more than a muscle pull to a weight bearing joint. But one of this size? Even I thought this would pinch a nerve. And numbness into the testicles? That was a new one.
We're all the same but we're all different. Each person, you figure them out.
Fixing tough cases is not magic, it's technique and hard work. It took 8 hour and a half sessions before we cracked the egg of his condition, and Danny could see the light at the end of the tunnel. We discovered a spasm pattern into the groin and as I worked it he exclaimed "that's it, that's what's causing the numbness and tingling into my testicles." At some point we broke through the pattern in his low back and he said "that's it, that's the original injury to my low back".
With this work we put you in touch with exactly what the problem is.
