Denise suffered from burning pain in her leg and into her hip for many years. An elite athlete who runs marathons, she was able to run and compete but sitting was agonizing pain. The pain was so bad she considered amputation. Then she researched online and found a doctor who could help hundreds of miles away. Learn how she became Piriformis Syndrome success story #387 for Dr. Tim Tollestrup.
Transcript:
Hi, my name is Denise Knight and I am a 44 year old who lives in a little town outside of Columbia called Chapin, South Carolina.
I could not sit for 20 minutes in a car ride or a dinner or a movie theater without getting super antsy, getting angry, cocking up onto the opposite hip to try and get some relief, sitting on my fist, really just anything that I could do. And so, after going to several pain management doctors, months and years of physical therapy with different physical therapists, I knew that I had come to my wit’s end when I was taking some type of pain medicine almost daily, and that is something that I am very anti. I really considered some type of an amputation because I was so uncomfortable. I was so in so much pain. And you don’t understand that until you’re actually in that boat.
I came across Dr. Tollestrup’s website after multiple years of researching sciatic pain, butt pain, finding no relief doing anything. My mom and I flew out to Henderson, Nevada and saw Dr. Tollestrup on a Monday, ended up being a prime candidate, apparently, because I was able to have the surgery on Tuesday morning.
Now that I can actually sit through a dinner with my family, I have sat in our recliner or sat on the couch for so many hours now, just for the sheer joy of being able to sit. It is absolutely amazing. I flew to Colorado to go skiing 2 weeks ago. I sat on the whole plane ride. I didn’t need an ice pack. I didn’t need a heating pad. I wasn’t antsy to get up. I didn’t need an aisle seat.
Had it not been for Google and watching YouTube videos and other patients’ stories through these social media outlets, I would have never had enough guts to travel halfway across the United States. I just can’t thank him enough for the time that he gave me when I was there, sending me videos of my surgery afterwards. He’s just very skilled in what he does. I was patient number 387 that he had removed somebody’s piriformis, and I hope that one day I get to have that as my bib number. The pain has now been alleviated, has now been taken care of, and I’m so grateful.