Patient Stories

Background

Karan, a mother of seven, is a talent booking agent who travels a lot for work with her husband. She really enjoys traveling. The problem was, she was in pain at a level 8 or 9 out of 10 on a daily basis. She couldn’t walk around where she wanted and felt she was too young for a wheelchair. Sitting for any length of time was very painful. Travel in a vehicle or airplane required lots of sitting, too. As her children got older, she thought she and her husband would have more time to travel and do things, but the pain was getting in the way. She tried all sorts of things to manage the pain, including physical therapy, anti-inflammatories, heating pads, ice packs, and staying off her feet. But ultimately, she had no success.

Then two of her discs herniated. She tried spinal injections and SI joint injections, which would offer 4-6 weeks of relief. But the pain came back. As part of her treatment, her doctor recommended a bilateral iFuse procedure. Karan had SI joint fusion on the left side in September of 2017. She said, “Right after surgery, it was sore for a couple days, but it was nothing compared to what it was.” She looked forward to having the other side done in November of 2017. After the second iFuse procedure, she reported that after a couple weeks of healing, that it felt great. “I didn’t realize how much pain I was in before I had the surgery.”

Once she was completely healed, Karan said she was able to go up and down stairs and walk wherever she wanted. “I don’t have to give up my day at 5 o’clock because I’m so sore,” she said. “I can exercise, I can do whatever I want now.”

This is one patient’s experience, results may vary.