The Sports Illustrated Curse holds nothing to SpineUniverse

I never had back pain.

Until, that is, I joined SpineUniverse. It turns out I have a degenerated disk L5 / S1 and it may require spine surgery.

You might say one person does not a curse make. To which I would add...

1. Our lead investor herniated his disc within 8 weeks of closing our Series A
2. Our VP of Sales discovers his wife has degenerative disc disease AND
   
3. A close family friend died at 29 after a spinal tumor ruptured his spinal cord last month
4. One of our editors had a motorcycle fall on her husband causing multiple fractures to both his lumbar and cervical spine
5. Our SEO guru's brother requires spine surgery
   

In follow-up to a previous post. I still have not gotten the results of the PT evaluation I took in July. Partially due to how busy we are re-launching the company and partially due to my complete lack of curiosity on how to fix myself. However, with this new diagnosis I plan to aggressively pursue non-surgical treatments before trying something like fusion or disc replacement. I even started using the elliptical again.

Thankfully I have the best surgeons in the country on the case. It pains me to think of the every day individuals with limited knowledge and limited resources to get, not just the right diagnosis, but the best treatment for where they are in their treatment algorithm.

The good news is this experience provides a tremendous level of insight into the plight of our visitors. You can't pay for that type of understanding. Well actually, I am paying quite a bit for it, but you know what I mean.

Next steps are to send the MRI to another surgeon for a second opinion, meet with a PT and schedule a neurology appointment to try and explain some tingling in my hands that seem to be a separate issue from the back.

Talk to you soon.

BP