Susan Ellis is a 40-year old female who injured her back while playing basketball at her workplace in May 2000. She was working at the Phoenix House Impact Program in the Juvenile Justice in Dallas. Susan has always been quite athletic having served in the armed forces and as a nurse and social worker. She was playing basketball with the kids in the program, went up for a lay-up and came down in pain. She felt a sharp burning pain in her back and down her legs.

After her injury, Susan saw Dr. Cable at TBI and began a regimen of physical therapy and tried to continue working at her job. Her PT schedule conflicted with work and finally she had to leave work to try to recover. She switched to Worker’s Comp and from September 2001 – October 2002 she had a combination of treatments including physical therapies, MRI’s, discograms, steroid injections, Interdisc thermal therapy and medications. Finally, in October 2002, Dr Rashbaum performed surgery (Laminectomy) on her herniated discs. She felt better and her pain lessened through January 2003, so she returned to work as an apartment manager. Over time the Laminectomy failed and Susan’s pain returned. In December 2004 she was encouraged to have a neuro-stimulator inserted to control and to manage her pain. The stimulator was very effective however the three year battery failed at six months and she was told that they would have to put in a new one. Worker’s Comp denied and then approved after appeal. During the appeal process, Susan had to deal with and mange her pain until December 2005. At that time she had a rechargeable unit put in.

In February 2006, Susan was contacted by TBI to see if she wanted to enter into the CoPE program. She entered with caution thinking that “At the very least I’ll get some physical therapy out of it without hurting my stimulator.” Getting back into shape was very important to her. Little did she know that she would gain much more than physical strength.

“They really focused in on the mind-body connection and I found that I could plan to do things and train my mind and body to ready for an activity in the future. You have the opportunity through CoPE to develop the inner strength and balance over mind and muscle, because everything requires balance…life requires balance.”

Group therapy facilitates growth and socialization. “I was brought up to invalidate any pain that I felt, so I have an extremely high tolerance for pain. I needed this program to learn that I can express my pain and I can acknowledge when to stop. I know now what my limitations are and they vary but I also know that I can plan ahead to strengthen for additional activities so I can go beyond my limitations. I had to learn to listen to my body even though I spent most of my career in health care.”

Other Patient Testimonials

Virginia Burdell - Trans1 AxiaLIF Surgery

Paul Deasy - ProDisc-L Artificial Disc Replacement Surgery

Susan Ellis - CoPE Program

Daniel MacDonald - CoPE Program

Mary Morse - Charité Artificial Disc

Kyle Spooner - Charité Artificial Disc