Summary
A 62-year-old horticulturist, guitarist, and Lynyrd Skynyrd fan from Jacksonville had been dealing with lower back and leg pain for six years. Stemming from heavy lifting at garden store jobs and worsened during the COVID era when returning to work shut the pain down his leg completely. A prior laminectomy had temporarily reduced symptoms only because he stopped working, but the pain returned as soon as he became active again; because the disc, the true source of the pain, was never addressed. Facing a fusion recommendation and refusing to accept it, he found Deuk Spine Institute online and underwent the Deuk Laser Disc Repair® at L4-5 and L5-S1. The following morning his back pain and leg pain were completely gone, he had taken only Tylenol and Robaxin, slept well at his hotel, and was ready at 62 to stop merely existing and start truly living: swimming, walking, biking, and getting back to playing guitar.
Transcript
Dr. Ara Deukmedjian: Good morning. It’s February 22nd, 2023. I’m Dr. Deukmedjian and I’m here with one of my patients who traveled to Deuk Spine Institute not too far away, from Jacksonville.
Patient: That’s correct. Yeah, that’s where we’re from.
Dr. Ara Deukmedjian: You found out about Deuk Spine through the internet?
Patient: Yes, I did.
Dr. Ara Deukmedjian: And why did you end up coming here?
Patient: I ended up coming here because I could not get rid of the pain that I had in my back and in my leg. I tried to exercise, I tried every physical therapy, yoga everything you could think of. And I just could not get out of it. It just would linger and linger and linger and it wouldn’t go away.
Dr. Ara Deukmedjian: How long have you had that back pain?
Patient: This back pain has lasted me for the last six years. It started when I was working at the garden store, doing a lot of heavy lifting. I took some time off from it, and then I jumped back into work. And the pain when COVID hit, I had gotten a job in a garden, took another job in the garden store, and it shut down my leg. And it’s been like that… the pain’s been like that for two years. So now it’s 2023 and I came here to see you. And yesterday we had it done, and in one day I’m doing a lot better.
Dr. Ara Deukmedjian: So your back. You had the Deuk Laser Disc Repair® done yesterday at L4-5 and L5-S1. You could see us in there with a tiny seven-millimeter incision, the endoscope and the laser cleaning out your disc. And clearly, to me, the disc did look injured like there were about five to ten years of injury. So it’s been going on for a while for you. And you have degenerative disc disease. So a lot of people ask me. Does the laser surgery work to get rid of back pain and leg pain when it’s degenerative disc disease? What would you say sitting here now?
Patient: Yeah, I mean. My worry was that the disc had gotten just so bad that it wasn’t really repairable. That I was being recommended a fusion. And I certainly did not want that. When the pain came on, I researched and found you and said, “No, I don’t have to do that. I don’t want to have to do that. That’s just not right.”
Dr. Ara Deukmedjian: Yeah. So you have degenerative disc disease at L4-5 and L5-S1, but you had back pain coming from them. We did the laser surgery. We didn’t do fusion. Is your back pain still there?
Patient: No. It’s gone. It’s gone.
Dr. Ara Deukmedjian: And the pain in your right leg, down the back of your right leg is that still there?
Patient: That’s gone. Gone.
Dr. Ara Deukmedjian: Now is it gone because we put you on narcotic painkillers and you’re loaded up on morphine right now?
Patient: No, no, no. No pain medicine. No anything.
Dr. Ara Deukmedjian: So what did you take after the surgery?
Patient: Tylenol.
Dr. Ara Deukmedjian: Tylenol.
Patient: Robaxin.
Dr. Ara Deukmedjian: Robaxin. And are you still taking them?
Patient: I took them this morning, in fact. I didn’t even take them right after. Went to dinner after, and yesterday we went to the hotel, slept real well, and got back up. So no narcotics. I’ve been up walking around.
Dr. Ara Deukmedjian: The surgery was outpatient. At 62, this is your time to really concentrate on your health and get back to the exercises and the walking you want to do, the swimming, the bicycle
Patient: The living. Not the existing.
Dr. Ara Deukmedjian: Exactly. Living. Because you’re not limited by pain anymore.
Patient: Yeah. And maybe you know. I was awarded disability over the phone because of COVID, and he awarded me that. Congratulations. That was two years ago. But I still I don’t want to depend on the government. I want to go out and get working again.
Dr. Ara Deukmedjian: You may not need disability anymore. What do you think?
Patient: That’s where I’m going.
Dr. Ara Deukmedjian: I want to mention one more thing. You did have surgery before you came and that’s another thing. You had a laminectomy. Did it work for you?
Patient: You know, I have to say it may have worked only because after my first surgery I stopped the work that I was doing at the Jacksonville Zoo and Gardens. I’m a horticulturist. But
Dr. Ara Deukmedjian: But if it worked, you wouldn’t be having surgery. So did it work for you? Did it take away your back pain?
Patient: No. No, it didn’t. Not in the long run. No. Because of the weird leg pain down my leg no.
Dr. Ara Deukmedjian: So the problem with laminectomy is people feel good maybe for a little while, a few months, maybe a year. But then, because they’ve removed all the bones and ligaments, it causes things to get worse. And they’re not addressing the disc the disc is actually the cause of all the pain. They didn’t fix your disc.
Patient: No. Because when I had that surgery, I stopped the job I was doing, took time off and went back in. Boom. It went back in.
Dr. Ara Deukmedjian: As soon as you got active again, the pain came back.
Patient: That’s right.
Dr. Ara Deukmedjian: That’s the problem. You really just limited your activities rather than fixing the source of the pain. Laminectomy doesn’t do that. It doesn’t fix the source of the pain. The Deuk Laser Disc Repair® does. Well, congratulations. I’m happy for you. And I’m excited for you and the rest of your life. At 62, you’re going to start enjoying life and doing all the things you want to do. But remember to let it heal first.
Patient: Yeah. We’re gonna let it heal before I put that big heavy guitar on me because I am a guitarist.
Dr. Ara Deukmedjian: Of course. There you go. Anything you want to say to your musical fans out there?
Patient: Just remember keep on rocking in the free world. And if you need some help, come to this man. He is amazing.
Dr. Ara Deukmedjian: Yeah. We got a Lynyrd Skynyrd fan right here.
Patient: Yeah. I love the Southern rock.
Dr. Ara Deukmedjian: All right. Thank you.
Deuk Laser Disc Repair® at Deuk Spine Institute
This patient underwent the Deuk Laser Disc Repair® at Deuk Spine Institute for degenerative disc disease at L4-5 and L5-S1 causing six years of chronic lower back and leg pain. A condition that a prior laminectomy had failed to address, providing only temporary relief by forcing activity restriction rather than fixing the disc itself. As Dr. Deukmedjian explains, laminectomy removes bones and ligaments without treating the damaged disc. Which is the actual source of the pain and often leads to worsening over time. The Deuk Laser Disc Repair® targets the disc directly using a laser and endoscope through a seven-millimeter incision, cleaning out the degenerated and injured disc tissue that causes pain: with no fusion, no hospitalization, and no narcotic pain medication. Both back pain and leg pain were completely resolved by the morning after the outpatient procedure, on only Tylenol and a muscle relaxer. Patients with degenerative disc disease who have been recommended fusion or who have already undergone a failed laminectomy are encouraged to submit their MRI for a complimentary MRI review and virtual consultation with Dr. Deukmedjian at Deuk Spine Institute.