Joe Altenhoff
Joe Altenhoff was no stranger to the pain. And, he’ll tell you, he’d even become used to it.
Active and in good physical shape, he’d altered his lifestyle in an effort to cope with the nagging irritation in his back that had lasted more than a decade. However, for the owner and principal at Arc Design, an engineering firm in Rockford, there finally came a time when he reached his limit.
“I lived with the pain for a long time,” says Altenhoff. “But when the pain escalated and my leg started to go numb, that’s when I knew I had to do something.”
That something turned into a lot of things. He’d tried chiropractic treatments, anti-inflammatories, along with a number of other therapies and exercises. Nothing worked.
A visit to spine surgeon Christopher Sliva, M.D., at Rockford Spine Center, led to the imposing-sounding diagnosis of isthmic spondylolisthesis, more commonly understood as a slipped vertebrae.
“Joe’s symptoms had progressively worsened,” says Dr. Sliva. “He was dealing with buttock, thigh and calf pain with numbness and paraesthesia, or a ‘pins and needles’ sensation.”
More importantly, Dr. Sliva understood the impact the pain was having on Altenhoff’s life.
“The pain was really disabling to Joe,” Dr. Sliva says. “He had to modify his lifestyle quite substantially and he wanted something more definitive to be done about it.”
After exhausting a number of non-surgical options, it was clear that surgery was the solution. He and Dr. Sliva discussed the procedure and worked together to develop a plan.
“We empower our patients so they can choose their course of treatment and surgery is typically our last resort,” emphasizes Dr. Sliva. “We look at conservative treatment options and how pain is affecting a patient’s quality of life. Only about 10 percent of our patients end up needing surgery.”
Altenhoff is an engineer, a problem-solver by nature, and he was very involved in the process. He and Dr. Sliva looked at the scans and the models of the spine to understand what was wrong.
“I was thinking about alternative ways to fix it,” he recalls. “However, I knew it was complicated and that it wasn’t going to go away and would most likely get worse. I had a lot of confidence in Dr. Sliva going into the surgery and I knew it had to get done.”
Working with Dr. Sliva and his team, Altenhoff was diligent in preparing for the procedure, known as a transforaminal lumbar fusion. The procedure involves removing a disc from between two vertebrae and then fusing the vertebrae to together. For the patient, the results can be remarkable.
“I woke up and instantly knew it was better,” remembers Altenhoff. “I could feel it right away and it was amazing. That was a start of a phenomenal recovery.”
A day after the procedure, he was doing occupational and physical therapy to jump start the recovery. Today, six months after the surgery, Altenhoff has resumed his active lifestyle. He’s made a few modifications but “nothing too radical,” as he puts it.
And, of course, the pain is no more.
“Having pain for so long, you take it for granted,” he says. “I’m grateful for Dr. Sliva and his team and so happy that the nuisance of having that daily pain is gone.”