Jennifer’s Story
When you have three sons ranging from age 5 to 15, you’re a busy mom. You’re always on the go. You maneuver drop-offs and pick-ups at the elementary school, middle school and high school! From playdates and sports practices to what feels like a million trips to the grocery store (in the span of one week!), life is full and your “mom taxi” is racking up lots of miles. Throw in taking care of a home, a husband, and a part-time job, and “busy mom” no longer quite covers it.
Jennifer Schneider wouldn’t trade her life for anything. She revels in her roles of wife and mother. She loves her job as the children’s music director at her church, and she has a community of friends she works out with through Camp Gladiator, a group-fitness boot camp.
But persistent neck and back pain that evolved from occasional and annoying to constant and debilitating ultimately threatened to derail this supermom.
“I was pregnant with my third son at the age of 38, and I started to experience some pretty significant neck and back pain,” said Jennifer. After she safely delivered her son, Jennifer had Xrays and an MRI, which revealed a herniated disc.
Long Road to Recovery
Over the course of several months and then years, she tried everything from chiropractic to physical therapy to pain management to massage therapy to cryotherapy to acupuncture, trying to get the situation to resolve. “You name it, I did it,” she said. “I wanted to do everything I could do to avoid surgery. With three active boys, I just didn’t feel like I could afford any downtime.”
As time passed, Jennifer began to experience numbness and tingling in her left arm and was beginning to experience issues with being able to grip things in her left hand. In the spring of this year, she knew it was time to consider alternatives. “I just knew that something more needed to be done,” she said.
Jennifer was referred to Dr. Ricky Kalra at Kalra Brain & Spine. After many tests and lengthy consultations, Dr. Kalra suggested artificial disc replacement as the best solution to get Jennifer out of pain, get the numbness to resolve and basically give her back her life. She had the surgery in late July and just four weeks post-op, she has no regrets.
“It’s basically been a miracle, quite frankly,” said Jennifer. “Within two days of the surgery, I realized how much I didn’t have use of my left arm prior to surgery because, after surgery, it was completely restored.” And within a week, the chronic nagging pain was gone. Just gone.
Jennifer is now in training for a big team competition in November with her outdoor fitness boot camp group. “I’m so encouraged in physical therapy and I’m eager to see what I can do when I’m cleared to go back to working out at 100 percent,” she said.
The Kalra Brain & Spine Difference
Things Jennifer appreciates about Dr. Kalra? “He is no-nonsense, which I like,” she said. “And he is conservative in his approach which I appreciated so much. He’s knowledgeable and professional. I felt really safe. I felt secure in knowing that he was the one in charge of my care.”
Jennifer recalls a very candid and compassionate conversation she had with Dr. Kalra, where she expressed her desire to be free of the pain medications she had become dependent on over the years. “He was very kind and compassionate and just understood where I was and what I was feeling about it,” she said. “There was no judgment, and he gave me great hope that I would be able to come off those meds very easily. He is helping me do that, and it really means more to me than anything else.”
New Hope for Neck and Back Pain
When world-class training meets hometown values deeply rooted in family and community, the result is the kind of medical care you’ve always hoped for. This describes Kalra Brain & Spine, the practice of Dr. Ricky Kalra, who specializes in the most up-to-date evidence-based neurological care. If you’re living with neck or back pain that is unresolved with other treatment modalities, schedule a consultation with Dr. Kalra today.