“It was like going from the darkness into the light.”
Will describing how he felt after nerve surgery with Dr. Tim Tollestrup. The pain he had for years was suddenly gone.
Unfortunately Will found Dr. Tollestrup after he had revision surgery for a knee arthroplasty with an orthopedic surgeon. It was a major surgery he did not need to have.
Now Will is sharing his story in hopes of helping others avoid the same unnecessary surgery.
Full Transcript:
My name is Will and this is my story.
I was having a lot of pain in my lower leg, basically from the knee down all the way into my foot. It was bothering the function of my foot, not just the pain, but mobility was an issue. Don’t have any quality of life. Yeah, you can’t do anything. You’re limited to just staying around the house
He just couldn’t find any one thing particular wrong so he decided to do another replacement or a revision to that replacement. For after the surgery, I kept saying, “Something’s wrong. Something’s wrong.” I’m having a lot of pain. I’m having a lot of the skin was very tight and it wouldn’t move and it was always warm. And they said, “Well, it’s only been six months since you had your knee surgery. If it’s not better in a year, we’ll look at it. The reality for me was day to day was not good enough that I could wait another six months. I just was not willing to wait
We had a conversation and he started the evaluation. And as soon as he did, I knew that I was at the right place.
I think it was the day after the surgery I kind of noticed. I’m like, “Hmm, I don’t have that nerve pain anymore. It’s gone. It’s just gone. Where did it go?”
I had surgery, a major surgery that I probably didn’t need to have. It’s hard to look back in hindsight, like you said, but it does just kind of make you go, “I wish I could have came here first.” Since my surgery, which has only been six weeks ago, my wife and I are talking about traveling, making plans, going back to the things we like to do, hiking, beach, travel. I don’t know how to describe. It’s like going from darkness into the light, kind of. You have this, you’re like, “Wow, I feel so much better.” I don’t have this constant nagging hanging over me.
I would recommend Dr. Tollestrup to just about anyone that’s had any kind of injury, surgery that didn’t repair, that didn’t relieve the pain, any kind of scenario in which the normal routes of orthopedics doesn’t solve the pain. I would tell him thank you a million times over. And I would tell him he needs to dress up in a marching band outfit and get out there and beat the drum and let people know that there’s options other than suffering.