When Pain Couldn't Wait: Ray’s Story

The golf trip had been six months in the mak­ing. Ray S. and his wife were in Palm Springs with friends, look­ing for­ward to sev­er­al days of golf, sun­shine, and time away. How­ev­er, mid­way through the trip, the nag­ging pain he’d been feel­ing in his leg became impos­si­ble to ignore.

“By the sec­ond day, I knew I was in trou­ble,” he said.

What start­ed as dis­com­fort quick­ly esca­lat­ed into severe nerve pain. Stand­ing for more than a few sec­onds sent elec­tric shocks down his leg, and walk­ing became near­ly impos­si­ble. Instead of spend­ing the week on the course, Ray made the dif­fi­cult deci­sion to fly home ear­ly, leav­ing his wife and friends behind.

Get­ting home was a chal­lenge in itself. ​“It was painful just get­ting through the air­port,” he recalled. By the time he made it home, his pain had inten­si­fied. Before long, he was near­ly crawl­ing from room to room, unable to stand upright. As fright­en­ing as the pain was, anoth­er con­cern weighed on his mind — how long it might take to get help.

“I thought I might be fac­ing weeks of appoint­ments and wait­ing to see spe­cial­ists while things got worse,” he said.

A Rapid Response

Instead, things moved quick­ly. Ray sched­uled an appoint­ment online with Duly Health and Care and was seen the very next day by Ima Jonkheer, DO, MS, an Ortho­pe­dics and Sports Med­i­cine physi­cian with Duly Ortho­pe­dics and Spine.

From the moment she saw him, Dr. Jonkheer rec­og­nized the urgency of his con­di­tion. ​“What stood out was how quick­ly his symp­toms esca­lat­ed in some­one who was oth­er­wise active,” she said.

Dur­ing her eval­u­a­tion, she iden­ti­fied find­ings that went beyond rou­tine back pain. ​“I found clear weak­ness on his right side — hip flex­ion, knee exten­sion, and toe move­ment were all affect­ed,” she explained. ​“That degree of weak­ness rais­es con­cern for nerve impinge­ment that can lead to per­ma­nent dam­age if not addressed quick­ly. When you see neu­ro­log­ic weak­ness like that, you don’t wait.”

Dr. Jonkheer ordered imag­ing that same day and imme­di­ate­ly coor­di­nat­ed with her col­leagues on next steps.

Rac­ing the Clock

Imag­ing con­firmed a her­ni­at­ed L4 disc press­ing on a nerve, explain­ing the sever­i­ty of his symp­toms. The next day, Ray was eval­u­at­ed by Pain Med­i­cine physi­cian John Jor­dan Gashkoff, MD, DABIPP, who man­aged his pain while coor­di­nat­ing close­ly with the Ortho­pe­dics and Spine team.

He then met with Spine Sur­geon Ashish Patel, MD, to review sur­gi­cal options. ​“In his case, mes­sages were sent right away between providers,” Dr. Patel said. ​“It was almost like pick­ing up the ​‘bat phone.’ Every­one under­stood he need­ed urgent attention.”

Togeth­er, they care­ful­ly weighed con­ser­v­a­tive care against the urgency of his con­di­tion. ​“We don’t rush to oper­ate, but in his case, he was com­plete­ly debil­i­tat­ed. He wasn’t walk­ing, and his life had changed overnight,” Dr. Patel said. ​“When a nerve stops func­tion­ing prop­er­ly, patients are on the clock. The con­cern becomes per­ma­nent nerve damage.”

Dr. Patel rec­om­mend­ed surgery, not­ing, ​“I explained all the options, but at that point, he need­ed defin­i­tive treat­ment quickly.”

Less than two weeks after first seek­ing care, Ray under­went an out­pa­tient endo­scop­ic dis­cec­to­my, a min­i­mal­ly inva­sive pro­ce­dure per­formed by Dr. Patel. The results were imme­di­ate and significant.

“He had about 80% relief imme­di­ate­ly after surgery,” Dr. Patel said. ​“Since the pro­ce­dure is min­i­mal­ly inva­sive, recov­ery is much quick­er with less post-oper­a­tive pain.”

Pain like Ray’s isn’t some­thing to wait out — espe­cial­ly when it’s get­ting worse. If back, neck, or leg pain is inter­fer­ing with your dai­ly life, the spe­cial­ists at Duly Ortho­pe­dics and Spine can eval­u­ate your symp­toms and help you find relief, often with an appoint­ment as soon as the next day. Sched­ule a vis­it online. >

Seam­less Coordination

What stood out most to Ray wasn’t just the out­come, but how seam­less­ly his care came together.

“There were sev­er­al doc­tors involved, but every­body com­mu­ni­cat­ed,” he said. ​“I nev­er felt like I was try­ing to nav­i­gate it on my own. Every per­son I encoun­tered was com­pas­sion­ate. Every­body seemed to gen­uine­ly care.”

Today, Ray is focused on recov­ery. He’s walk­ing dai­ly, fol­low­ing his phys­i­cal ther­a­py pro­gram, and work­ing toward return­ing to the activ­i­ties he enjoys most — includ­ing golf.

Look­ing back, he reflect­ed on the team­work that made all the dif­fer­ence dur­ing a fright­en­ing time.

“When you’re hurt­ing like that, every­day mat­ters,” he shared. ​“What impressed me most was how every­one came togeth­er. The pain was scary, but know­ing there was a team respond­ing so quick­ly made all the difference.”

Like Ray, you don’t have to nav­i­gate pain on your own. Whether it’s a nag­ging ache or sud­den, severe pain, the Duly Ortho­pe­dics and Spine team is ready to help you get back to the activ­i­ties you love. Request an ortho­pe­dic appoint­ment today. >