Terry Streetman (Host): Welcome back to Well Within Reach, presented by Riverside Healthcare. I'm Terry Streetman, Marketing Communications Representative. And I'm here today with Barry Wilkey. We're in the Orthopedic Spine Center. We're going to learn about Barry's experience with chronic pain and how Riverside's interventional pain medicine specialist helped him move on from that pain and get back to all the activities that he loves.

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Host: Welcome. Thanks for being here with us.

Barry Wilkey: Well, thanks for having me.

Host: Awesome. So, we're going to get started. Can you tell us a little bit about yourself and the activities that you enjoyed prior to experiencing this pain?

Barry Wilkey: Sure, yeah. I'm a community member here. I've been a lifelong community member. I grew up on a farm and grew up with athletics in my background-- martial arts, jujitsu, things like that, wrestling in high school. An avid bodybuilder and weightlifter my whole life, and physically active quite a bit. To this day, I love biking and working on the gym.

Host: Awesome. So, when it comes to then those activities and the pain that you experienced, what kind of pain did you have? How severe was it and how did it affect those activities?

Barry Wilkey: Well, I can say that, coming from that background and dealing with pain, I would have to say how severe was it, let's say a broken arm number seven, this was a six on that scale.

Host: Okay. Okay.

Barry Wilkey: So, what it did for me is it really kind of paralyzed me in my life. I was actually getting to the point where I was thinking, you know, "What's the end game here? Is it a walker? Is it something?" You know, I mean, I was getting to a point after months and months and months where I was on a downhill spiral.

Host: Yeah. Well, I'm sorry to hear that, but I'm really glad that you were able to get relief. As you were dealing with that before you came to Riverside, had you tried other things to try to get relief and did you think that you were going to have to get surgery?

Barry Wilkey: I didn't. I didn't start out with surgery because I always thought surgery would be the last thing I'd ever think of in my life because I've always heard of, "Oh, surgery," you know, and then you hear about the horror stories afterwards. But I've tried everything before that. I mean, I tried, of course, you know, your ibuprofen, your cold packs, your acupuncture, you name it. My wife's a physical therapist, and we went through extensive physical therapy. We've tried about everything we could try to alleviate this pain. It was not going away. It was getting worse and progressively worse. And she said, as a doctor of physical therapy, "This is getting serious." And it was.

Host: Okay. You kind of touched on this a minute ago, but prior to coming to Riverside, how did you feel about your chances of getting relief?

Barry Wilkey: Well, it was getting dark. Yeah, it was getting pretty dark for me. I mean, I didn't really think there was going to be an avenue. And I thought, "Okay, if I have to go down this road, I don't want to go under the knife as they say," because that was something I'd never had thought I would have to do in my life.

Host: Right. Yeah. Well, so then, once you did get that referral and you came to Riverside, can you describe what that process was like of the referral, you know, scheduling, myChart, and with your providers?

Barry Wilkey: Oh, it was excellent. First, I went to Nurse Practitioner Valentino, and she was great. She was awesome on the spot of treatment to tell me, "This is where you need to go, because this is outside of something that we're going to be able to handle here." And so, she gave me a referral. And when she gave me that referral, I'm thinking pain management, you know, pain management.

The process itself was seamless. It was on point. It seemed like I went through a natural progression that wasn't tough to navigate. It was easy for me. It was just like they kind of knew where to direct me and where to send me. The whole process from logging in to myChart, those types of things, they were just an added bonus. I mean, it made it seamless for me.

Host: Awesome. Well, we love to hear that. And that's what we hope myChart does for folks and with our sort of complete healthcare system. So, i'm glad that it worked for you.

Barry Wilkey: It did.

Host: So then, let's talk specifically about your experience with Dr. Shori, what was it like meeting with him, going through the processes to get to the point of the procedure, and then all of that.

Barry Wilkey: Well, again, I came in with a little bit of apprehension going in to see Dr. Shori, just because, you know, in my mind, pain management is management of pain, not alleviation of problems. And so, I'm thinking, "Okay, so what are they going to do to me?"-- This and that. But the first time when I met him, I walked in the door and I met this kind of upbeat, just positive, you know, like, "I've got this handled," but listened very well to me. He took my background in consideration. He dove deep into what I liked to do and what I expected to get out of what I was going to do with them. And that was a real positive, because he embraced me as a person and as the athlete that I still this day-- not as much-- but was and still hoped to be. So, he really approached me as a person first and then started to apply the medicine he learned and the techniques he learned. And assured me that, "Look, this is an avenue that I think is going to benefit you a lot."

Host: Nice. I'm sure that, I hope that put you at ease then about after all of this.

Barry Wilkey: It did. It really did. It kind of broke down some of those walls. Like, "Okay, we might be going somewhere here."

Host: Okay. So then, you get to, you know, the point of having the procedure. Can you talk about what that experience was like?

Barry Wilkey: From check-in to meeting and greeting, you know, you come in the morning and the first person you meet, it's 5:30 in the morning, you're going in for surgery, great. The staff was awesome. It was like a good morning. It was a hello, you know, very positive going into it. And then, even too-- and I must take a side road here real quick, the younger staff that I ran into-- you know, there's a lot of talk today-- the younger staff that I ran into at Riverside Hospital was awesome. They were great. They were on point, they were professional, they were kind. And so, I really was starting to get at ease when I went in there.

So, it was a pretty quick workup. You know, it was about an hour. And then, I went into surgery. I go wheel down the hall. I get into the room, and he's got some soft music playing and really kind of upbeat though. And it was neat. And he went through the whole procedure with me and told me what he was going to do, how he was going to do it, and what I could expect. The whole time he is talking to me, going through this, I don't feel anything. I'm expecting to feel some pain, some pressure. I don't feel anything. I'm like, "Amazing!" So, 15, 20 minutes later, I'm done.

Host: Oh, wow. That quick.

Barry Wilkey: That quick.

Host: All right.

Barry Wilkey: I was like, "Are you kidding me?" I'm thinking. So obviously, I was feeling a little bit better. And he told me, "We'll see you again here shortly." He told me what to do. Nurses, everybody, went over what to do after the surgery. And within inside of a day, I was feeling so much better. I was actually laughing. Like, I was, at some points, going through the pain. I was in a ball on my living room floor, and that's how bad it was. And so, to go through that whole lifecycle of this pain to out the other end, it was just a wonderful experience.

Host: Well, I'm very glad. And, I guess, can you talk a little bit more about what that recovery process was like and then how that changed your life and what activities you were able to get back to?

Barry Wilkey: You know, with inside of four or five days, I was back at the gym light, not stressing, not going crazy as he said. And just every day I'd wake up and I'd be like, "I'll go to bed." And I'm like, "Man, this is feeling better. This is feeling better." And then, I got to a threshold. I'm like, "It can't get any better than this. You're going to deal with this for a little while." Every day since until now, it seems like-- and not even now-- it was gone probably three months ago. But I would expect something to maybe like change, or maybe we're going to have a little step backwards. No. I feel repaired, fixed, and complete.

Host: Awesome. Well, given all that experience, then, you know, we're toward the end here, would you recommend Dr. Chori and our interventional pain medicine folks? That one seems obvious.

Barry Wilkey: I'd tell you, I can't say enough about the whole organization and Dr. Shori. From everybody I met, from coming in the door, to the doctor's care, it was amazing. What I got out of it was a new lease on a life I had. And to get my wheels back, as I call them, my legs and my body, my function, somebody who's lived in that zone their whole life, it's a game changer. It was just absolutely wonderful. I would recommend it and I would tell everybody. I mean, if you think of pain management, it was more than pain management. It was solving a problem for me. It was a procedure that I didn't even know about was available that changed my life again back to where it was for the better.

Host: Well, I'm so glad to hear that.

Barry Wilkey: It was awesome.

Host: We appreciate you sharing your story and telling folks about this service that's available, because you're not the only one going through this.

Barry Wilkey: And I would encourage anybody if they have pain, please look up Dr. Shori in Riverside Medical Center because they changed my life.

Host: Well, that's great. Thank you again for being here, Barry.

Barry Wilkey: You're welcome.

Host: Thank you for tuning into Well Within Reach, presented by Riverside Healthcare. Please take a moment to rate and leave a review for the podcast wherever you get your podcasts. And to learn more about Riverside Healthcare, visit riversidehealthcare.org.