10 years ago, Joao started to experiencing pain in his lumber spine. He went to see his family doctor who prescribed him Diclofenac injections to help ease the pain. At first Joao’s pain seemed to slowly disappear, but over the years he grew immune to the injections and the pain came back. Even though Joao had various tests done, his doctors were unable to specify what was causing the pain.

Joao’s pain became so intense and frequent that eventually he was taken to the ER. His medical team suspected he was dealing with a herniated disc and a CT scan was recommended to further investigate.

The pain was seriously affecting Joao’s quality of life and wasn’t allowing him to sit or lay down for extended periods of time. Things took a turn for the worse when Joao experienced another episode of pain which left him paralyzed for a month. At this point his medical team decided that Joao must undergo lumber spine surgery but explained to him to be conscious that it would be possible that only the pain in his leg would get better, not necessarily other parts of the body.

He underwent surgery and was disheartened when it didn’t help his symptoms in any capacity. The pain continued to diminish his quality of life and interfere with his sleep, ability to walk, and both his personal and professional life.

The pain was taking over my life; daily tasks became an obstacle and playing with my kids was almost undoable. I felt miserable and started taking antidepressants to cope with the situation.”

Naturally, Joao started feeling depressed as his symptoms progressed when he also started feeling numbness and pain in his arm. Desperate to understand what was causing his medical issues, Joao decided to contact Best Doctors for a second medical opinion, to which he had access through his insurer.

The process started with an in-depth phone call with one of Best Doctors’ qualified nurses. Joao was able to share his whole story, after which the team started collecting all of his medical records and imaging on Joao’s behalf. His case was then sent to a hand-picked, leading expert in neuro surgery who reviewed his test results and medical history and followed up by writing a thorough report for Joao.

Joao was relieved knowing that one of the international best doctors was looking after his case.

The Best Doctors expert took a closer look at Joao’s imaging studies and saw that the curves a normal healthy spine should have in both in the neck and back, were hardly visible. In cases like this, patient’s to develop an imbalance of the spine that causes the body to lean forward resulting in constant pain in the areas of the body that are struggling to remain upright.

The expert explained that Joao himself will need to take an active role in his recovery, but that practicing the right exercises will greatly improve his symptoms. The expert is confident that if Joao commits to his recovery, the pain could eventually disappear completely. Best Doctors was able to provide Joao the understanding he needed about the root cause of his pain and a clear treatment plan for him to follow with the support of his local doctor.