Facts: Allen Nielson, husband and father of four, owner of a logistics company, from Mercer Island, WA

The symptoms, how it all started
Allen Nielson started noticing shoulder pain and muscle problems on the left side of his body. It was a small amount of pain that he first noticed, but the pain gradually worsened over a two-month period. He experienced a lot of cramping as well. After about three weeks of pain, he went to see his doctor. He was diagnosed with a herniated disc in his neck. You’d think that with a herniated disc in his neck, he would have neck pain; however, this wasn’t the case. With a herniated disc, the muscles near the disc overcompensate for the weakness that the herniated disc causes, which then causes the muscles near the disc to tighten, protecting the area from additional damage.

Any sort of movement required by his left arm was painful. He had to turn his entire body to the left to look over his shoulder when driving in his car. It was difficult using his left hand, and he is left-handed, making it hard to write. Any sort of movement by his left hand was limited. The less motion his arm made, the better it felt.

The first round of treatment
Allen began therapy, specifically muscle, massage and electro-therapy, per his doctor’s instructions. He also began to take pain killers such as hydrocodone as well as muscle relaxers to alleviate the pain he was suffering from. Allen, however, felt little real relief from the therapy and drugs prescribed. To Allen, this treatment wasn’t enough. The doctor was saying that if he kept at the therapy the disc would slip back into place within 6-12 months, but Allen had no way of knowing how quickly that recovery date might come. He was anxious to recover fully and he didn’t want to wait that long.

As an avid tennis player and occasional jogger, Allen was in so much pain that he could not partake in those activities. It was just too painful. He had enough and decided to talk to a personal friend of his, Dr. Schroedl, who also happens to be a doctor at Northwest Hospital. While Dr. Schroedl’s specialty is Emergency Medicine, Allen was glad to have an advocate on his side with the knowledge base to guide him in the right direction. Allen always knew that another option to treat his herniated disc was neurosurgery and now that he wanted a quicker cure, Allen began to pursue this option as the best next step. Allen ended up talking to Dr. Klein, a neurosurgeon at Northwest Hospital, about the details of having the surgery to correct his disc.

The procedure
Dr. Klein explained the procedure: under general anesthesia, he would make a small incision in Allen’s neck, cut out the herniated part of Allen’s disc, and sew him back up with a couple of stitches. Right from the start, Allen felt comfortable with the procedure. To him, the decision (whether to have the surgery and be pain-free immediately or go through therapy for 6-12 months with no set “cure date”) was easy. They warned him of the risks, mainly paralysis and a reherniated disc (even after surgery, 1 in 100 people’s discs can reherniate). He wasn’t nervous about this surgery because he knew Dr. Klein has performed over 2,000 of these procedures (4-5 in a week). This alleviated any concern he had. He felt confident with the doctors and nurses and was impressed with the facility.

Getting back to life as usual
Allen didn’t know quite what to expect after the surgery in terms of his mobility and recovery time. However when he woke up from surgery, he had no pain whatsoever. The area where they made the incision wasn’t even that painful for Allen. Allen describes his experience as, “going in and coming out with a ‘miracle cure.’” He said that he “could have put on tennis shoes and run 5 miles he felt so good – 110%.” Doctors said he had to stay inactive for two weeks after the surgery to allow for the incision point to heal and to remove the stitches.

Since the surgery, Allen is up to speed with his active lifestyle. He describes his physical health after surgery as “perfect.” He is enjoying sports, tennis and other athletics again. He has had no side effects; his disc has given him no additional problems; and he hasn’t had to undergo any therapy to regain his strength and mobility.

Read more patient stories