Patient Success Stories

Back in the Saddle After Lifelong Spinal Conditions

Ginger D.
Patient
Zionsville, IN

Ginger has loved and worked with horses for much of her life. But in past years, pain from lifelong health issues forced her to retire from the therapeutic riding program she started for children with disabilities.

Ginger’s own horses, Buddy and Harley, are stabled on a farm in Zionsville owned by a longtime friend. Over the course of several years, however, even the small amount of riding she did on evenings or weekends became harder and harder because of the pain in her spine and legs.

“When I would climb on my horse, he knew that I was in pain, and he did anything I asked. He was very calm, and he was very good about it. But it was getting harder and harder for me.”

One weekend, while helping friends move a grandfather clock, she felt the twinge of what would soon become intense pain.

“By the time I got home, I could barely walk,” Ginger said. “I was in severe pain, and I couldn’t lift my right leg. It sometimes took me an hour just to get out of my pickup truck. I had to sit on the stairs and lift myself up, step by step, just to get into my bedroom on the second floor.”

A family friend recommended Dr. DePowell and Goodman Campbell. Dr. DePowell diagnosed degenerative scoliosis, spondylolisthesis, spinal instability, spinal stenosis and spinal arthritis.

“He gave me the option to try pain-relieving shots first, but I wanted to get it fixed right away,” Ginger said. “In fact, I begged him to get it done as soon as possible because I had been away from the horse barn for two weeks, and I was going crazy not being there.”

Dr. DePowell performed a multilevel fusion—the second through fifth lumbar vertebrae.

“I had scoliosis and he straightened that up,” Ginger said. “I also had stenosis from where the spine was curved, and they corrected that and ‘cleaned up’ the arthritis and the bone spurs.”

Immediately after surgery she was up and walking. Within two weeks she was walking to the barn and is now back to riding and taking care of horses, going hours without pain for the first time in her life.

“I didn’t realize how happy I was until a friend took a picture of me on my new two-year-old horse,” Ginger said. “I suddenly realized: I’ve never been so happy in my life. Goodman Campbell has raised the bar in the medical field. I’ve never felt so well taken care of.”

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