When those who give need help
The woman who serves comfort food to family, friends, and students, needed someone to comfort and heal her.
Lisa Barrett sat with tears and trembling hands in the waiting room at Interlakes Orthopaedic Surgery (IOS) in Clifton Springs. For at least four years, Lisa “was being tough,” and managing chronic back pain until her suffering reached “an 11 on a scale of zero to ten.” Her primary care physician, Dr. Philipp Wirth at Lifecare Medical Associates ordered an MRI at Geneva General Hospital, referred her to IOS, and set her on a straight path. Physical therapy preceded two cortisone shots before spinal surgery became a reality, the day after Lisa was approved for insurance coverage. “I was so highly impressed with the level of care and the promptness of everyone who helped me,” said Lisa. From the administrative hands of the office to the nursing hands of those who “prayed and comforted me each of the three nights I was in the hospital, I just knew that they were all in this profession for a reason and it was a blessing for me.”
The L4-5 Laminectomy with a Transforaminal and Posterior Lumbar Fusion operation, performed at Geneva General, did more than repair Lisa’s spinal stenosis. “It gave me my life back.”
“The fear of the unknown is my biggest fear. I’ll never forget how calmly and compassionately the surgeon treated me,” Lisa recalled with the emotion of the moment coming back to her. “He was kind and very reassuring.”
Shortly after surgery, as her husband Paul was aiding her out of bed, with her back brace on and into her walker, he noticed how she began to move with newly found confidence. It has been years since she felt this way. “My pain had gone on for so long that I forgot how I used to feel.” She was back at work just six weeks later, and today she feels like herself, doing things “I couldn’t do in my thirties,” smiles Lisa.
Not only did the orthopaedic care she received at Finger Lakes Health get her moving again, it made the Kappa Alpha kitchen at Hobart College – her sanctuary – home once again for the “chef and mom,” as the young Statesmen call her.
“It excites me to know that I can live a full life now, and I have the phenomenal care team at Finger Lakes Health to thank.”