Grandmother Sue Watson says she can enjoy her life again after undergoing spinal surgery. Barry Nelson reports

RETIRED hairdresser Sue Watson was looking forward to spending more times with her four grandchildren when disaster struck. “I felt something go in my back and I suddenly found that I couldn’t walk for more than a few minutes without unbelievable pain, ” she says.

Sue, 64, of Darlington, who ran Sue’s Hair and Beauty, in Cockerton, for many years, adds: “I went to the doctors and they told me it was probably just wear and tear because of my age.

“I found it really difficult to get across to my GP the amount of pain I was in, ” recalls, Sue, who also experienced pins and needles shooting down her legs.

In February her GP arranged for her to have an MRI scan as well as a battery of hospital tests. Eventually she got an appointment to see a consultant to discuss her back problems – but her heart sank when this was called off at short notice.

“I was supposed to see an NHS consultant at the Spire Hosital, in Washington, on June 21 but a few weeks before they cancelled, ” says Sue, who felt that she was back to square one.

At this stage, a friend gave Sue a cutting from The Northern Echo about the work of North-East spinal surgeon Manoj Krishna. Mr Krishna, who is based at the North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust, but also does private work, specialises in helping hard-to-treat patients with a wide range of back problems.

“I arranged to have a consultation with Mr Krishna and he gave me a great deal of hope that he could make me better, ” she says.

Because she wanted to be operated on as soon as possible she opted to go private, a decision which cost thousands of pounds – but she feels it was worth every penny.

“I just decided we had to get on with it there and then. I felt there is no price you can put on your health.”

Just three weeks after the consultation, she went under the knife at the Spire Hospital in Norton, on Teesside. “I was absolutely petrified before the operation, but 12 hours later I was walking again and the back pain was gone, ” she says. “I can now walk for miles without any problem. Before the operation, I could do very little, but I now feel as if I have got my life back again. I felt on the outside of life looking in, I couldn’t pick my grandkids up before I had the operation, but that’s not a problem any more.”

Mr Krishna, explains that the pain experienced by Sue was caused by degeneration to a disk in the lower spine. “It had prolapsed and was pressing on a nerve, causing her back and leg pain, ” he says.

To give the procedure its full name the operation on Sue was a ‘less invasive posterior lumbar interbody fusion’. “It is where we remove the damaged disc and the facet joints, free up the nerves and restore normal loading across the disc by filling it with bone enclosed in cages, ” says Mr Krishna.

SUE was typical of many of the patients he sees. Often they despair of finding a solution to chronic back pain.

But the consultation orthopaedic surgeon believes he can help many of them find relief.

“There is no need in the 21st Century to suffer in silence. I believe that every human being has a right to a life without pain. Preventing back pain with regular exercise is important.”

My general message to all back sufferers is major advances in spinal surgery have made the impossible, possible. Surgery is safer, outcomes more predictable and recovery faster than ten years ago. There have also been major advances in the quality of MRI scans and diagnosis and in our understanding of pain.

Surgery is needed in only a small number of patients we see. The rest improve with conservative treatment.”

For Sue, the important thing is that she can now enjoy life to the full again.

“My family are the most important thing in my life. I wasn’t able to have a normal life with them but I can now. I can pick up my grandchildren and I can run upstairs, ” she says. “Before the operation I couldn’t do anything.”

Story taken from: Northern Echo

Desperate, depressed and even suicidal, many patients have hit rock bottom when they turn to spinal surgeon Manoj Krishna. Lucy Richardson discovers how he has transformed their lives and why they are jumping at the chance to give back.

SIMPLE everyday tasks from washing up at the kitchen sink, to climbing stairs and getting out of bed were unbearable for Clare Poulton.

After enduring excruciating agony for years, she feared her back pain was so great she couldn’t have a child.

You can read the full article here at: http://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/features/leader/9072171.Miracles_can_happen/

Two of Manoj’s patients were featured in March’s Running Free Magazine.

Download the full article: http://www.spinalsurgeon.com/wp-content/uploads/running-free-excerpt.jpg

Steve Rutter, 45, a popular pastoral head of year 11 at Ormesby Comprehensive School – who also plays snooker in the Cleveland Billiards and Snooker league – was struck down with back pain in December.

The dad-of-two, who lives with wife Debbie and their little girl Tia, five, in Ingleby Barwick, admits the pain got so bad, he was left crying in agony.

Yet despite extreme pain which forced him to put his career on hold and stop playing snooker for Guisborough Conservative, Steve was disappointed to be told he faced a wait of nine to 12 weeks for treatment at James Cook University Hospital in Middlesbrough.

He said: “I was crying all the time, just with the pain. I couldn’t drive with the amount of tablets I was on and I wasn’t eating. I lost nearly two stone in weight.”

Excerpt taken from: http://www.gazettelive.co.uk/news/teesside-news/2010/05/29/a-teesside-dad-has-praised-a-private-surgeon-who-saved-him-from-excruciating-back-problems-which-left-him-crying-in-pain-84229-26545752/

Despite suffering a rugby injury to his lower back 30 years ago Bryan Mason has always prided himself on his fitness.

Even when his back flared up, the former PE teacher managed to develop a series of core exercises which allowed him to continue a full, active life including running, cycling and vigorous walking.

But 18 months ago, the pain which he had got used to and learned to live with got much worse.

“From the time I got up in the morning, fairly intense sciatic pain was only relieved by crouching down at regular intervals,” says Bryan, from Crakehall, near Bedale.

“I underwent physio in an attempt to strengthen the muscles around the damaged disc area but this made no significant headway.

“Recognising the real problem, my physio, Sue Francis – ex-physio to the Zimbabwean rugby, cricket and Olympics athletic teams, recommended I saw spinal surgeon Mr Manoj Krishna.”

Excerpt taken from: http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/lifestyle/the-arts/back_to_peak_of_fitness_thanks_to_spine_surgery_1_2560388

An estimated 30 per cent of the population suffers from a bad back and yet very few actually get anything done about it.

Now a leading spinal surgeon says that people do not need to suffer in silence.

World-renowned surgeon Manoj Krishna carried out more than 250 spinal operations a year and has run a support group in Teesside for 10 years for people who have spinal problems and are considering surgery. This weekend sees the launch of a similar group in York.

“York doesn’t have a Spinal Surgery Service,” says Mr Krishna, consultant orthopaedic and spinal surgeon at North Tees Hospital.

Excerpt taken from: http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/lifestyle/the-arts/back_support_could_help_allay_surgery_fears_1_2313493

Gill Keighley was walking to the shops when a passer-by came up to her. ‘Are you all right?’ he asked.

Gill reassured him that she was fine but he looked doubtful.

‘Are you sure? You look in so much pain, I thought you’d been mugged.’

It was a defining moment for Gill, a 37-year-old social worker.

For two years, her body had been racked with pain caused by two badly deteriorated discs in her lower spine that were pressing on surrounding nerves.

Excerpt taken from: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1214677/My-pain-horrific-I-looked-I-mugged.html

ONE in three people suffer from back pain in any one year. For some it can be controlled with exercise and pain killers but for others it can mean years of agony, sleepless nights and depression.

Even simple, every day tasks such as putting on socks can become impossible and many sufferers struggle to continue working.

Lower back pain costs the economy more than £10bn annually and up to 5% of the population are disabled because of it.

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For more than 25 years, Keith Burgess lived with chronic, debilitating back pain. He visited chiropractors, physiotherapists and even acupuncturists, but nothing worked.

By last year, the pain had become so unbearable, he was struggling to do his job and his relationship with his family was also under strain.

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Sitting in the consultant’s office, I didn’t know what was making me feel more uncomfortable. The pain in my back or the thought of the operation I needed to make it stop.

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