Find
Theresa Hesse
In May of 1992, Theresa Hesse’s life came to a painful halt when she injured her back while trying to place a piece of luggage under a passenger’s seat. Theresa was a flight attendant and the mother of a two-year-old daughter, which gave her a very active lifestyle. After her injury, she could no longer enjoy activities such as skiing, biking or riding on roller coasters with her daughter. “The pain was terrible. It radiated down my right leg, and my lower back was in extreme pain,” she said. “I could barely move.”
Before coming to Texas Back Institute, Theresa sought the advice of her employer’s doctor and began physical therapy. However, it only intensified her pain. “I was told nothing could be done for me, and I would have to live with the pain.”
Six months later, a colleague referred Theresa to Dr. Cable at the Texas Back Institute, and began hydrotherapy and “work hardening,” which is a technique used to help an employee readjust to a job’s physical demands. “Dr. Cable was concerned for me, and he helped me fight worker’s compensation for treatment.”
Theresa underwent her first fusion and a hardwire removal in 1995 and, finally, a 360-degree fusion in 1996. “It truly helped me walk again,” she said. In 2006, Theresa went through Texas Back Institute’s CoPE program, which helps patients learn emotional control and pain-coping strategies. “The CoPE program changed me,” she said. “I still have some pain, but I have ways to fight it more effectively now.”
“My back is not healed, but I do have a great future ahead of me,” she said. “I’m active in my children’s lives, all their activities, and I started a peer support group for patients suffering from chronic pain. Now I find joy in every day, because I know I have something to live for, not just something to live with.”