Active and Flexible After 19 Years of Pain Management

Laura Eddy was bedridden and pumped full of narcotics to manage her back pain after every doctor told her she was hopeless. A friend said to try Dr. McCord, now she's active and flexible.

Hi I’m Laura, and I suffered with back pain for nineteen years before I was able to get any major relief. What I was told when I first got injured on the job was “The better you can deal with the pain, the better off you’ll be.” Everywhere I went it was basically the same, deal with the pain you’ll be better off. Because you might be in more pain after the surgery than before. That’s nothing you want to hear. So I dealt with the pain as long as I could deal with the pain. It got to the point where I’d get some relief, in those first few years for a while. I took injections in my back, and I get a little relief from that for a while and cope for a while. It just got to a point where it wasn’t working. I was on pain medication, so they were upping the dosage to stronger narcotics. I was scared of getting addicted to that. I’m taking oxycontin, lorcet plus, and those are both addictive drugs. I don’t want to be on the street corner begging for money to get my pain medication while I’m hurting.

It got to the point where I could hardly get out of bed. My commode and bedside is like three or four steps for somebody not hurting. When I got to those three or four steps it felt like three or four miles, that’s what I felt like during the struggle to get there. Sometimes I’d have to have assistance getting up, assistance getting dressed, in and out of the shower. And when I am in the shower all I could do was soap your upper body, and just let the soap run off because you couldn’t bend down. It was straining, mentally and physically. There were days I’m thinking “ok I’m at the end of my rope I can’t go no farther.” Plus with regular everyday life problems in there, that’s a lot to deal with.

Some friends of mine recommended Dr. McCord. I told them that everyone has told me the same thing, I’ve gone from doctor to doctor to doctor- “as long as you can deal with the pain, the better off you are.” But they insisted “Just try him!” My youngest daughter was getting married, it was a wedding helper that recommended him. I decided to try Dr. McCord. So here I am planning the wedding in bed and she was trying to help me out. She said “You need to go do this before the wedding,” I said no I’m scared I’ll be in worse shape. Just let me go on and get through this, then I’ll try Dr. McCord.

So we did, and after I got through with the wedding in June it was April that I had my surgery. He said the first three weeks would be the worst three weeks, and it was. But when I first came to Dr. McCord the thing I had made up in my mind would be changing if he would be positive about the surgery. If he gave me a positive outcome, that would be what I’d make up my mind on. When he came in he introduced himself and says “Why you’ve been hurting so long? Did somebody tell you there is no help for you?” I said basically, yeah! That’s what I’ve been told. He said “Well, I can help you.”

“Why you’ve been hurting so long? Did somebody tell you there is no help for you?”

That just changed everything inside of me. He could help me, with no reservations. This is something I never heard in the whole nineteen years that I’ve been suffering. He talked to me about the surgery, then his assistant talked to me, so I went ahead and got scheduled for my testing to be done. I’ve got a 3 hour commute between where I live, which was kind of uncomfortable, a little out of the way for us to do but my daughter brought me back and forth. I had my tests done on Easter weekend. Like he said the first three weeks were the worst, I had problems getting comfortable was my main thing at night. I could do good during the daytime but night I just couldn’t get in a good position to rest. After that, it’s been good for me. I hadn’t had any pain in the area he worked on. I have other problems that I have pains from, but not the back where he worked. I just wish I’d had known nineteen years ago about it. Everybody I see, everybody that I know that’s having back problems I tell them about Dr. McCord. He’s done two surgeries on my daughter’s back after he did mine.

I’m pleased with the results. One doctor I saw years before Dr. McCord said he’d do the surgery, but the area is so small and it’s right by the central nervous system. If there were any little thing go wrong I could be paralyzed for the rest of my life. I was going to him so I could get more use, more mobility. But he was saying there’s a good probability I’d be paralyzed. That put a damper on that right away, so I was back to square one, disappointed, let down and depressed. It was a roller coaster ride. If you can come talk to Dr. McCord and come with an open mind that you’ll give him a chance and explain if he thinks he can do anything for you. Just go from there. I think it’ll be worth the trouble. I do believe he’ll be honest with you if I couldn’t help you he’ll tell you right away. Don’t expect him to buttercoat for you because he’s not like that. He might not laugh and talk and joke with you, but he will listen to you and he’s very serious. He takes his job very seriously. I’ve recommended about four people to him. I’m convicted! (laughs)