When Back Pains Mean More Than A Back Problem

Don Speaks played football in college and maintained a lifelong dedication to fitness. He ran as long as his knees would let him, he coached youth sports and he stayed active, until about five years ago. That's when he began to feel as if large needles had pierced his lower back.

He tried acupuncture, chiropractic treatment, ice and exercise. But his back pain increased, eventually affecting the strength in his legs and making it difficult for him to walk. Used to living with a degree of pain from his football days, Speaks procrastinated and delayed seeing an orthopedist, much to the chagrin of his family.

"My wife stayed on me, my children stayed on me, I have a granddaughter who said, 'Papa, Papa, when are you going to do something about your back?'" said Speaks, 69, and a Stone Mountain resident.

Ultimately, they had the desired effect. In August 2018, after trying several other treatment options and consulting a number of medical professionals — some who wanted to put "metal in my back" — Speaks met with Dr. Scott Boden, medical director and spine surgeon at Emory University Orthopaedics & Spine Hospital.

"He was having about as much pain as I've seen anyone have in my 26 years," Boden said. "And more importantly, he was having weakness, which is an even bigger problem in terms of his legs. So it was really taking away his life and his activities."

"It was locking down on me"

Boden diagnosed Speaks with spinal stenosis, a narrowing of the spinal column in the lumbar region of his back. Using a model of the back, he showed Speaks how the pressure on his spinal column was impeding the nerves traveling to his legs, which was the reason his back pain had evolved into difficulty walking.

"My back was feeling like it was locking down on me, and I was losing the dexterity in my lower limbs," Speaks said. "It was horrible. And there at the end, the pain was unceasing."

Speaks admits that the aches he dealt with from his football career perhaps made him more tolerant of pain than he should have been, and a career working in public health made him somewhat skeptical of the medical system. His procrastination made his pain worse, and ultimately made his road to recovery longer than it would have been otherwise.

"He had been putting it off, honestly, way longer than most people do," Boden said. "That made his pain much more significant. His ability to move was much more compromised over a much longer period of time."

And had Speaks continued to wait? "I think he was headed for possibly being in a wheelchair, or having very limited mobility," Boden added.

Boden recommended a laminectomy, the typical course of action to remedy spinal stenosis. It involves removing some of the bones covering the spinal canal to relieve pressure on the nerves within.

"It's like I'm a new person"

Speaks underwent surgery in October 2018. Boden said it was done under general anesthesia, with an "incision made near the spine," and according to Emory, "a small section of the bony roof of the spine, the lamina, is removed to create more space for the nerves."

Speaks received inpatient therapy for six weeks and is undergoing outpatient therapy. "All along the treatment chain, everybody is elegant and knowledgeable and concerned about the patient," Speaks said of his treatment at Emory.

And the pain? "It's like I'm a new person. The pain and just the constant pulsation from the discomfort — it's all gone. I don't feel any pain in my back in the area where Dr. Boden removed the bones. I'm well along in the rehab cycle, and here in the last couple of weeks I've taken a major leap," Speaks said.

Whenever anybody asks him about the back, he tells them, "If you think you have a back problem, assume you do, and go get it checked out before it has a chance to progress to any nerve damage."

Not everyone with back pain, Boden cautions, is a candidate for surgery. But when back pain begins to impact mobility, as was the case with Speaks, it's a different story.

"The unique thing about Don's situation was he had radiating leg pain and weakness. That's different from just back pain," Boden said. "So, for people with a back problem and it's beginning to affect their ability to walk, that's when you need to at least start thinking about surgery. If it's just pain, then it's a matter of how much it affects your activities. But when it really affects your strength and your ability to walk and move around, that's the point where changes are not reversible."

For more information, call 404-778-3350.

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