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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.

Donald thought he was out of pain relief options until one doctor suggested a spinal cord stimulator

When John’s left arm slid across his desk, he knew something was wrong, but he didn’t move it. His arm moving on its own concerned him and alerted him to tell his wife, Laura.

Richard Hood’s workouts at his St. Peters gym were rigorous and routine. The 78-year-old would split his hour and a half evenly between running on a treadmill and lifting weights. So when he began feeling dizzy during a January gym visit, Richard knew he wasn’t just tired.

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.

Bruce and Andrea Slaner both turned to the Pain Management Center at Parkland Health Center, for help with chronic pain. Today they are living pain-free and getting back to life, together.

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.