My name's Frank Crowthers. I'm from Ontario, Canada. I had been going to the pain care clinic for something else, my neck. And while I was already a patient, picked up an air conditioner and turned, and I guess that that's when the herniation
happened. This past year I just felt fragile,
nothing was working anymore. And then my doctor, Dr. Demien, from the pain care
clinic suggested this surgery for me to look into it, you know, what they could do in Canada
and what they could do here. So initially I was like
unsure of, you know, leaving the country and
getting the procedure done. So I did some research. That's how it all started life, where I can continue doing
the things that I like to do. I had to do this. First time I met Dr. Cucchi was a video call. He was very relaxed, made
me relax, took his time. He actually, when I
left the day of surgery, he called me when I got back
to my room to check on me. He called me personally, not a nurse. He called me and I thought
that was really cool. So everybody that was gonna be
involved in the surgery came and introduced themselves
as a doctor, as a nurse, their full name, everything. It made you feel at ease. My main nurse was Abby,
who was fantastic. She started an iv, they put me on fluids and then everybody came
and introduced themselves. And I remember I was feeling, actually, I actually dozed off. I dozed off while waiting. So I was relaxed enough
to have a little nap. They put it, they said,
just breathe oxygen and they slowly start
putting you to sleep. And then I woke up in the
same bed that I had been in and Abby walked me out to my car. My wife was sitting, was
standing there waiting for me right outside the door. And that's it. It was, it was quite amazing. I mean, I was asleep and then I was awake
in the same bed - fixed. They cut me, not even
one inch to fix my spine. And I'm told in Canada
it's a six inch cut. They cut the muscle and your recovery time's all from muscle. Well, they didn't cut my muscle. They fish their way through
it and there's no pain there. And by five - it was about
5 PM, 5:15 I was out walking. So I walked around it
twice. It's about a mile. And I couldn't believe
it that I was up walking, sitting today, after week. I can't believe that it's, it's like this. I thought I'd be laid up and
not being able to do anything. I was out for my birthday
on the 28th. Dinner and a show. Been to the beaches all after surgery in this short week. Like we made a vacation
out of it. After a week and I'm feeling this good already. Like this could take, you know,
six weeks to feel, you know, all the inflammation from the
surgery down and everything. You know, it's pretty exciting, you know, to not have the, that pain. It's not a coverup. This is kind of a, a cure.
In Canada, we're used to, okay, you can do this,
or here's a waiting list. And you know, they, they
don't offer this in Canada, you know, if you have any
kind of a fear of going to a different country,
this is the states, they're just like us, right. Except they do these kind of procedures. For me, it's probably, I can tell you after a week, it's probably
gonna go down as one of the best investments that
I've made in myself, knowing that I'm gonna be, be able to continue on riding my
motorcycle, working out, playing with my grandkids, doing
stuff, doing the things that I, I, I want to do. If I had to do it again, I'd be doing it with less reservation.
