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When Kumar Vasudevan, MD, a WashU Medicine neurosurgeon at Christian Hospital, meets with patients to discuss if spine surgery is right for them, he shares that their path to pain relief starts before he puts on his surgical scrubs and extends after the operation is complete.

But the minor twinge that started after one of her regular weight-lifting sessions soon grew into intense shoulder pain with accompanying arm and wrist weakness that threatened to sidetrack her busy life. She had a ruptured disc in her cervical (neck) spine.

Imagine waking up one day with a strange sensation in your legs. It’s not pain exactly, but it’s not normal — you don’t quite feel like your brain is coordinating with your limbs.

Bill Bunch’s favorite activities include golfing, tending to his yard, and playing catch with his grandson. Each one became more difficult and less enjoyable for the retiree during a six-year span in which a worsening back condition affected his hips, legs, and feet.

Two wheels sped down a rural Missouri highway, and a 14-year-old fell in love. “It was a freedom feeling,” Tom Waller says, more than six decades after his first motorcycle ride. “And I’ve never lost it.

Think of the word “infertility,” and you might picture a couple without children struggling to get pregnant or stay pregnant. But there is another set of people — those who have successfully conceived and given birth to one or more children — who struggle with infertility, too.

Food insecurity, or a lack of consistent access to nutritious and affordable food, is a pervasive issue that affects communities across the country. In St. Louis, this problem is prevalent, with a significant portion of the population facing challenges in getting the right kinds of food. Often, this is because grocery stores or other fresh food options are limited or simply because many can’t afford to buy nutritious food.

From candied yams to buttery mashed potatoes and creamy green bean casseroles, many Thanksgiving and holiday dishes are carbohydrate-heavy, posing a danger for people with diabetes and pre-diabetes.

Some sisters imagine what it might be like to have and raise their kids close together. Few, however, get to experience giving birth to their babies on the exact same day, at the same hospital, delivered by the same doctor. It sounds like a fictionalized movie storyline. But for two St. Louis sisters, this was their reality.