‘You don’t have to live in pain’: Spine patient finally finds relief after decade of agony

When Rick St. John woke up in a post-op recovery room at Reid Health, he was still a little groggy from anesthesia, but that didn't keep him from experiencing something he hadn't in a decade.

He had feeling in the toes of his right foot again.

And just as important was what he couldn't feel anymore -- the debilitating pain in the same leg that had plagued him for just as long.

"I knew then he did everything he said he was going to do with this," St. John said.

That "he" was Surgeon Hon Vien, DO, of Reid Health Spine. This was the second time St. John had put his health in the hands of Dr. Vien and his team. Years before, he'd come to Reid for help with his neck.

"Dr. Vien's a great guy. I just have complete faith in him," St. John said. "If I can't have him do anything else I might need done, I don't want anyone else. I'll suffer."

St. John is all too familiar with suffering. A 23-year career serving in the U.S. Army left him with a body that couldn't hold up to the physical rigors the military demanded any longer.

"It all started with my back," he said. "These rucksacks we had to wear were 60 to 70 pounds, and you're putting miles and miles and miles on your feet and knees. The back can only take so much of that before it starts compressing.

"I chose to retire because my body just wasn't going to take it anymore. I had multiple discs that were starting to bulge and were giving me problems."

A surgery at a U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) facility helped for a little while, but things progressively got worse.

"I felt like I could tolerate the pain in my back better than what I was having in the leg," St. John said. "I was starting to drag my leg. The pain felt like somebody was grabbing the nerves in your legs and just pulling on them.

"You get up on Monday morning, and you're already in pain. By Friday, you're kind of done with it all."

An avid hunter and fisherman, St. John couldn't walk, sit, or stand for long periods of time. When going out to eat, he had to bring a pillow with him.

"Going out to restaurants I had to think about what type of chairs do they have? Are the chairs solid?" he said. "It was completely embarrassing to do that because people look at you and you're carrying a pillow in.

"I've still got the pillow as a reminder, but it doesn't go out anymore."

St. John had 18 pain injections over the years. Epidurals and nerve ablations offered only temporary relief.

"I don't think the general person who doesn't have chronic pain can understand how much it degrades your quality of life," he said. "You don't want to do anything except get the pain under control."

Eventually, it became time for surgery, but the VA didn't have a surgeon available, so St. John was given the option for care closer to home instead.

"When they offered me community care, I'm like, 'Oh, this is great. Can I use Reid?' And they approved it. And I said, 'OK, I want Dr. Vien,'" he said.

"The nice thing about going to Reid and that group is they're very thorough. You have meetings before your surgery, and they take devices and show you what they're going to do.

"Dr. Vien asked me, 'What do you want out of this?' And I said, 'I want some quality of life back.'"

And that's just what St. John got thanks to a noninvasive, robotics-assisted procedure.

"Before surgery, my life was pretty much a state of depression," he said, "but after the surgery, my quality of life is probably higher than it's been since I was in the military. Even my family members notice a difference."

The recovery period was a night-and-day difference from his first back procedure performed by the VA years before. That surgery had larger incisions and a slower return to normal activities.

"The recovery period from the first one, you're pretty much in a chair. You go home the next day, but you're pretty much chairbound for the next two weeks. You have to get help getting up. You have home care coming in to help take care of you and everything," St. John said.

"Compared to that, what I went through with Dr. Vien and Reid was miraculous. You're up and walking within like two or three hours."

St. John urges friends with back issues of their own to seek help as soon as possible.

"You don't have to live in pain. The answers are out there. You just need to motivate yourself to go find them," he said.

"And in my case, it was Dr. Vien and Reid."

Learn more about Reid Health's spine team and request an appointment at https://www.reidhealth.org/spine.

"Dr. Vien's a great guy. I just have complete faith in him. If I can't have him do anything else I might need done, I don't want anyone else. I'll suffer." -- Rick St. John