Steven Lazerus

I never skied. I never climbed mountains. I never ran a marathon. I occasionally golfed (very badly, I might add). So when I retired after nearly 40 years of 65-hour work week desk jobs and being on-call 24x7, my idea of getting back in the game was to reacquaint myself with my wife and two sons and their families and start really enjoying my three granddaughters. Then, three years after retiring, I badly herniated two cervical discs and my quality of life suddenly became poor. Ten years earlier, I had experienced the same exquisite level of neck pain, profound shoulder and arm immobility, and months of sleepless nights and had surgery on Long Island to correct it, so I clearly knew what was in store for me. However, this time the pain and immobility were worse. I saw a local orthopedist, but all he did was prescribe pain pills. I truly dislike taking pain meds; I don’t like the way they make me feel, but I tried them all. I had three epidural injections, but they each only relieved my pain for a day or two.

Then after four months of agony and on the basis of their reputation, I reached out to orthopaedic surgeon Dr. Federico Girardi at HSS. After several consultations and additional testing, Dr. Girardi performed a bi-level anterior cervical discectomy with fusion and plating. When I awoke from the anaesthesia, my pain was gone. After two days, I was discharged from HSS with a prescription for heavy pain meds. I never needed to use them. After four weeks of hard and soft cervical collars, I could resume driving. My life quickly returned to normal. Eighteen months post-op, I’m still pain-free and enjoying retirement. The level of care and concern during my stay at HSS was incomparable. I cannot commend the surgeons, nurses and staff of HSS highly enough. They truly got me back in the game. I still don’t ski. I still don’t climb mountains. I still don’t run marathons. I still golf (very badly).