News

Deirdre Parnell was diagnosed with diabetes more than eight years ago. She then began experiencing pain in her feet, which spread to her legs and hands. Eventually, the pain grew so intense she had to take a leave of disability at work.

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.

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.

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.

When Paige’s water broke at 37 weeks pregnant, she was ready to meet her baby. It was a markedly different feeling from earlier in her pregnancy, when, at 25 weeks gestation, Paige underwent a surgery at Barnes-Jewish Hospital to repair a defect in her baby’s spine.

Martha Williams checked off a goal on her bucket list in April 2019. She qualified for, and ran, in the Boston Marathon. Although it's an accomplishment only a small percentage of runners can claim, Williams' story might not sound particularly extraordinary -- that is, unless you begin the story in December 2010.