If you’ve had back pain, you know how debilitating it can be. Sometimes, however, it can be difficult to know who to see and to determine the best treatment plan for you.

That’s why Nebraska Medicine created the Comprehensive Spine Program, a team of spine specialists who work together to create a more comprehensive and coordinated plan of care designed around your needs.

Trained to treat spine issues from the common to the complex, the team includes physical medicine and rehabilitation (PM&R) specialists, pain specialists, spine surgeons and physical and occupational therapists who will collaborate and evaluate the best treatment approach for you – whether that be physical and manual therapy, injections, medications, surgery or a combination of these. The following two stories illustrate different paths a patient at the spine program might follow, but with the same outcome – getting back to doing the things they enjoy. 

Thomas Cooper can’t be sure where or when his back pain began. At age 77, he has lived a lifetime of demanding physical activity from water skiing, high intensity aerobic exercise and weight lifting to years of gardening with his wife, Ginny. Whenever his back flared up, a little physical therapy usually did the trick. 

But this time was different. After trimming trees with an electric tree trimmer, Cooper remembers waking up to lightning like pain that began in his lower back and shot through his hip, down his leg, and into his left foot. “It was electrical pain – like fire and lightning,” he recalls. “It was one of the worst pains I have ever felt."

After a visit to his doctor, MRI scans, two steroid shots and still no substantial relief, Cooper made an appointment with Chris Cornett, MD, Nebraska Medicine orthopaedic surgeon at the Comprehensive Spine Program. 

Following a thorough physical evaluation and reviewing his scans, Dr. Cornett discovered a small grape sized cyst resting against a nerve near Cooper’s spine. 

Dr. Cornett recommended a laminectomy, a procedure that would allow him to remove cartilage and bone between two of the vertebrae and create a space to reach the benign cyst so it could be carefully removed. 

“Dr. Cornett had my confidence from the beginning,” says Cooper. “About a week before surgery, a team of different doctors saw me and each asked very specific questions to make sure I was a good fit for surgery. I was very impressed.”

Dr. Cornett then performed the laminectomy, followed by a spinal fusion in which the bone was fused back together between the adjacent vertebrae.

“Every ounce of pain was gone from the moment I woke up from surgery,” he says. Cooper did so well, he was able to go home the next day.

Deshbir Sandhu had been living with debilitating back pain for more than 20 years after a bad motorcycle accident at his homeland in India. For years, he modified his lifestyle to accommodate the pain. He gave up cycling, avoided bending and lifting heavy objects, and had to take frequent breaks when sitting for extended periods of time.

Over the last year, however, the pain intensified. Sandhu decided to seek medical advice. After being told he would need surgery at his first doctor’s visit, he scheduled a second opinion with Michael Weaver, DO, Nebraska Medicine physical medicine and rehabilitation specialist at the Comprehensive Spine Program.

I didn’t see any signs of a pinched nerve or significant degenerative issues, which led me to believe we could improve his condition with conservative measures,” says Dr. Weaver.

Deshbir received a prescription for a muscle relaxer and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory and an appointment with a physical therapist. “Deshbir’s muscles had become significantly deconditioned. He had also been overcompensating for the pain, which can lead to other muscle imbalance problems. After we worked with Deshbir with some hands on manual therapy, stretching and core strengthening exercises, he was able to continue his therapy at home,” Dr. Weaver recalls.

After a couple of months, Sandhu’s pain was gone. “I can do everything now,” he says. “I can bend, sit, lift weights at the gym and I’m back to cycling again on weekends. I have no pain at all.”

“The important thing now is that Deshbir continues his physical therapy at home and incorporates it into a lifelong habit to keep his back and surrounding muscles strong and well supported,” says Dr. Weaver.

Like Sandhu, Cooper also continues his physical therapy to build strength and agility and has made great progress. “If all of the gardening and lifting I’ve been doing with Ginny is any indication, I’d say I am doing quite well,” says Cooper. As far as tree trimming goes, however, he says next time, he’ll leave it to the professionals.