Professional ballet dancers like Susan are familiar with injury and pain. “Dancers are crazy—we experience pain differently,” she says. So when her shoulder started to hurt and she had pins and needles down her arm, she shrugged it off, hoping it would get better on its own. She soon realized this kind of constant and chronic pain isn’t something to shrug off—it’s a sign that there is something seriously wrong with your body.
Hear the story from Susan in this exclusive video.
Susan discovered she had two fully ruptured discs in her neck. Fusion wasn’t a preferred option for a dancer who needed to keep her range of motion. So she and her surgeon, Dr. Bray, decided on artificial disc replacement, a procedure that alleviated the symptoms and kept her neck supple.
“I was particularly impressed with the recovery,” she says. She had only five days of pain post-surgery, and was back to full classes and activities after three months.
Dr. Bray and his team work with athletes like Susan every day. They know that it’s hard to take time away from a physical career. Their goal is to alleviate symptoms that can impede performance and get their patients safely back to a healthy and active lifestyle with as little downtime as possible. Their center specializes in minimally invasive options and has a zero percent infection rate.
