I learned for the first time that "Degenerative Disc Disease" had partnered up with arthritis, Lord knows when, to wreak havoc from my neck to my tailbone and in my hips, about 6 to 8 months before the disease actually struck me down and disabled me. I was suffering from a “Hip Labral Tear” on my left hip at the time and I was at my 1st appointment with an Orthopedic Surgeon to see about getting it repaired. The first thing he did was to take an x-ray of my spine from the middle of my thoracic all the way down to my tail bone. I was shocked when he showed me the x-ray! In the lower part of my thoracic spine, it appeared to me that half a disc was missing between two vertebrae and something that looked like a tooth was growing from the upper of the two vertebrae. It was a bone spur. A little lower down, in the lumbar region of my spine, it appeared that a whole entire disc was missing. It was shocking but these things were not causing me any real pain at the time; however, my neck had been causing me quite a bit of pain lately. So, I asked the surgeon if he would x-ray my neck, as well. The results of this x-ray were horrifying. Out of seven discs, in the cervical region of my spine, there were only two that looked fully intact. The other five discs were in various states of decay and at least two of them seemed to be gone. The orthopedic surgeon that took the x-rays told me I needed to see a spine doctor. Fast forward about 6 to 8 months, to May 25, 2020. I don't know how it happened, I wasn't doing anything strenuous; nevertheless, I somehow suffered from another “Hip Labral Tear”, this time on my right hip. I immediately had trouble walking and within four days I had lost 90% of the use of my right leg. I could not walk without a walker and even with the walker it was very painful when I had to walk. I would step forward with the walker and my left foot, and my right leg would just drag along behind me. The new labral tear utterly wreaked havoc with my spine. The vertebrae with the missing discs had collapsed and were crushing my nerves, causing me an unbelievable amount of pain from my lower back all the way down to the bottom of my feet and rendering my right leg almost completely useless. It was in this condition when I had my first appointment with Dr. Pawel P. Jankowski. Previous to this appointment, I had x-rays and MRI's done on my spine and I had brought the results of those procedures with me. Dr. Jankowski looked over the results of my MRI's and x-rays, he tested my legs a couple different ways, and in less than 15 minutes he knew exactly what was wrong with me. He handed me his business card and told me to check in to the Emergency Ward at Hoag Hospital in Newport Beach immediately, and he instructed me to hand them his business card when I got there. It was Friday, July 24, 2020, and that evening, I was in and out of an MRI machine for almost three hours and the next day, Saturday, July 25, 2020, Dr. Jankowski performed "Emergency, Invasive, Thoracic/Lumbar Spine Surgery" on my spine and the next day, Sunday, July 25, 2020, he performed "Minimally Invasive Cervical Spine Surgery" on my neck. The use of my right leg was completely restored. The constant pain I was suffering from in my neck was gone and within 30 days, I could walk normally again without pain. Dr. Pawel P. Jankowski is an extraordinarily skillful surgeon and I consider myself extremely lucky to have gotten him to do my surgery. My whole life was on hold and in one fell swoop, Dr. Jankowski handed it back to me and for that, I owe him a great debt of gratitude.
