Glenn Emanuel

I have been treated for both disc and facet joint issues of the lower back by Dr. Vijay Vad for more than a decade. In addition to his wonderful care in the office and following his Back Rx series, I had RFDs, epidurals and facet injections. By 2018, my ruptured L5-S1 disc was nearly bone on bone and the best course of action was now the surgery we tried to for 7 years to avoid.

Dr. Vad recommended Dr. Qureshi and my life has been changed for the better ever since. Dr. Qureshi performed an ALIF spinal fusion and the results are amazing. I know every patient is different, but not only did the surgery prevent larger surgery down the road, it has allowed me to do PT (previously too risky) to improve muscle condition, bio-mechanics and flexibility. I am doing all of this with ZERO pain at the surgical site. Where my muscles couldn’t or didn’t work properly, now they are learning to do so. Make no mistake, retraining muscles to work properly is not fun, but unlike before surgery, the pain is temporary.

If possible, I would also suggest doing the PT at HSS. I use HSS Westchester and the things my therapist Jay Mizuta has been able to do is incredible. The skill, tools and compassion of the folks at PT is the equal of HSS surgeons and nurses - and that is saying a lot. Having all of this in the same computer system as your surgeon is also a good thing for connecting both parts to construct and manage a post op game plan.

I make less daily concessions and if you are reading this you know what that is like. Trying things friends recommend, buying things online only to find they don't work for you, not doing things others can do, not doing things you used to be able to do, etc. There will always be things I can't do, but more importantly for a quality of life, the list of things I CAN do is growing for the first time in over a decade.

I had the surgery in mid-December. The picture I posted is from July 4th weekend. It was my first round of golf in 7 years without ibuprofen and you can’t understand how happy I was that day.

One last thing, I always thought (still do) that the dumbest reason to pick a doctor is how nice he is or is his staff. In Dr. Qureshi’s case, you get a world-class surgeon with amazing hands and a staff that is compassionate, caring, brilliantly competent and responsive. Dr. Qureshi himself answers emails and does whatever he can to make sure you are comfortable with your surgery. I can be a handful and I literally don’t know how I could be happier to be Back in the Game – both golf and life.