One middle-aged patient sought me out in Seattle from the East Coast for a second opinion regarding his neck. He had been disabled since 2001 with chronic pain over most of his body. He had at least 10 additional symptoms of burning, aching, stabbing, and tingling that would migrate throughout … Read More
Do You Really Need Spine Surgery? Take Control with Advice from a Surgeon considers all factors affecting your perception of pain and organizes them into a treatment grid that allows you to make a good decision regarding having spine surgery. Spine surgery is out of control. I am not against … Read More
About three years ago, my staff noticed that our surgical patients who participated in The DOC Journey principles were doing much better. The outcomes were more consistent, and we were seeing fewer failures. The postoperative pain was more easily controlled. Patients were moving forward quickly with rehab while re-entering a … Read More
I started my practice in Seattle in 1986. I was feeling pretty beat up from my spine training. I felt well-trained and began to perform fusions for LBP with a zeal. It was what I was trained to do. It quickly became clear that chronic low back pain was much … Read More
Objectives Spine surgery is not an option if there is not a structural problem with matching symptoms. Back pain does not respond to surgery and it is often made much worse in the presence of untreated chronic pain. It is understandable why you might choose it as it seems definitive … Read More
Jean was a 48 year-old woman who came to me from a neighboring state for a second opinion. She filled out an extensive spine pain questionnaire, which included many questions about her quality of life, in addition to a history and diagram of the pain. She was a healthy physically active … Read More
Any skill in life, mental or physical is first learned and them embedded in our brains with repetition. This is true for physical sensory input as well as mental. In both chronic mental and physical pain, the impulse are memorized in about 6-12 months and then it does not matter … Read More
There is deep basic science and clinical research that documents effective treatments for chronic mental and physical disease. Most of it has not entered into clinical care and our burden of chronic disease continues to grow. In fact, much of what is being done is not only risky, based on … Read More
Preston Phillips, the spine surgeon shot this week in Tulsa, was a colleague of mine in Seattle. I did not know him well but interacted with him in conferences and some patient care. He was as well-intentioned a surgeon and nice person as I have worked with. It is easy … Read More
I quit my surgical spine practice in 2019 because I was seeing so much surgery performed on normally aging spines. They were causing severe damage to people’s spines and destroying their lives. Frequently, the impact was catastrophic. At the same time, I was witnessing hundreds of patients having their pain … Read More