Patient Ambassadors

Has Dr. Skaribas and GHPC improved the quality of your life? Would you like to share your story? Please contact us if you are interested in our patient ambassador program. Our patient ambassadors share their experiences online, and by making themselves available through email. If you feel your experience, your situation can be shared with others in a similar situation and give them hope that their life can be better, please contact us through email or by calling 713-458-4530

Device implanted by Dr. Ioannis Skaribas ends Houston teen’s chronic pain.

Watch his interview on KHOU News or please watch it on our YouTube Page

My condition, which eventually led to implantation of the neurotransmitter, was a herniated disc at L5-S1.  I sustained the injury when I was in my early 20’s while doing squats.  At the time, my best friend and I lifted very heavy weights with plans to try to play college football after our high school football career had ended.  One day I was doing squats and I felt a horrible pain in my lower back.  It felt like someone had hit me with a baseball bat.  The injury ended any plans for college football.  At the time I sought chiropractic care and physical therapy with some improvement in my condition.  Over the next twenty years I battled chronic back pain until finally in my late 30’s the condition became almost unbearable.  I sought out the opinions of several spinal surgeons who universally recommended various surgical procedures.

One of the first surgeons I saw told me all I needed was to remove a small portion of the disc and then I would be fine.  That sounded great – so I had a percutaneous discectomy which sadly, did nothing for the pain.  Several other surgeons recommended disc replacement and/or spinal fusion.  In order to avoid another surgery I tried everything: more chiropractic care, injections, acupuncture, pain creams, hypnosis (yes, even hypnosis) with no relief in sight.  Finally, I came to terms with the fact that I was going to have to have a major back surgery and after meeting a surgeon that had been highly recommended I decided to go forward with a spinal fusion.  This surgeon told me he had an 80-90% success rate and that soon enough I would be back in the gym and would even be able to run a marathon eventually (I had started running 20-25 miles per week in my mid-30’s as I had aspirations of running a marathon with my father who had done several).

I was so optimistic about the spinal fusion and thought “finally, my pain will end”.  Sadly, I was wrong.  Although the surgery apparently went fine I continued to have severe pain.  I kept going back to see the surgeon and underwent multiple diagnostic studies and injections.  The surgeon told me it would just take a long time to heal and that the condition described in my post-surgery x-rays would eventually heal.  I didn’t know any better and assumed this was true.  It wasn’t.  About two years later, I eventually saw another surgeon who advised me that I had pseudoarthrosis (non-union) and that the only thing that would help would be a second – this time a 360 degree – surgical fusion.  He described the procedure as major surgery that would involve removal of the prior hardware and installation of new hardware from the front and back in order to have a solid fusion.  He was also shocked that the prior surgeon had not told me that I had pseudoarthrosis as it was very apparent on the x-rays.  Needless to say, I couldn’t believe that I would have to go through another fusion and incur all the risks of this procedure.  I was also disappointed that the prior surgeon had not informed me of the poor result.  I decided that I would likely have the procedure but wanted to get through Christmas and New Years so as not to ruin the holidays for my kids.  A few more months went by as I just had a nagging feeling I should not go through with the second fusion.

One weekend, my wife and kids and I were at an Easter egg hunt and I saw a friend of the family who is an anesthesiologist.  I was never one to complain about my back but he asked me how my back was doing and I told him I was not doing well and that I was strongly considering another fusion.  He visibly grimaced and said I should really think that through before doing it.  He also suggested that I see a colleague of his, Dr. Ioannis Skaribas, a pain management doctor.  I told him I had seen so many pain doctors over the years and all they ever wanted to do was injections and medicate me.  He said this guy was different.  So I made the appointment.

This Dr. Skaribas told me that more injections would not work and that I really had two options – the surgical fusion or implantation of a neurotransmitter to improve my quality of life.  This was the first time I had ever heard of this technology – I couldn’t believe that no one had ever presented me with this as an option.  I again had hope that maybe this would be the answer.  I got on the website and read several of the testimonials of patients who had suffered for so long just as I had.  Their stories gave me hope and after meeting with Dr. Skaribas again, I decided to do it. About a week or two after the implantation, I started to feel much better.  My pain was almost non-existent in the mornings and during the day it was much less than it had been in the past.  In conjunction with the implant, I made some lifestyle changes – I stopped lifting weights entirely, started doing yoga and became more disciplined with my diet.  In fact, now that I can exercise again, I have lost 20-pounds and feel better at 43 than I did at 33.  I feel so fortunate that I met Dr. Skaribas and that he recommended the device.  I shudder to think what condition I would be in if I had undergone the second lumbar fusion surgery.

I decided to become a patient ambassador because I understand what it is like to live in chronic pain.  It is a misunderstood condition that no one can relate to unless they themselves have been through it.  Chronic pain robs you of the enjoyment of life that all of us deserve.  I want to help others by sharing my story.  If I can help even one person ultimately have an improvement in their quality of life, then I will consider my volunteering to have been a success.