Age: 60
Hometown: Carlsbad, CA
Surgeon: Girard Orthopaedic Surgeons Medical Group, San Diego, CA
Procedure: eXtreme Lateral Interbody Fusion (XLIF®)
Surgery Date: April 16, 2013
Life Prior to Surgery: Bobbi struggled with back pain for about four years. Initially, she did not seek medical treatment for her pain; she temporarily relieved the pain with conservative treatments.
Bobbi worked as a school bus driver for 39 years. Her love for her job and the kids she cared for drove her to finally pursue medical attention for the intense pain.
Bobbi’s doctor referred her to a surgeon who recommended the minimally disruptive XLIF procedure. Bobbi had previously attended an event that went into detail on how the XLIF procedure worked and she was confident that XLIF was the right surgery for her.
Situation Today: Bobbi underwent XLIF surgery in April 2013. Just a couple hours after surgery, Bobbi was up and walking with the assistance of her nurses. She was only in the hospital for three days.
Bobbi said that her first real test was walking up her apartment steps when she arrived home. “I was able to walk up that flight of steps with no problem!” Bobbi says.
For postoperative treatment, Bobbi enrolled in physical therapy for six weeks.
Since surgery, she has made walking her primary exercise. “You would have never caught me walking prior to my surgery, but now I walk everywhere,” she says. “I have even lost 25 pounds!”
Now that Bobbi is living pain-free, she walks to the Army and Navy Academy where she works full-time as the Director of Transportation. In her free time, she volunteers at dances and weekend events on campus.
After 40 years of driving a school bus, Bobbi plans to continue working for five more years until retirement. Then she and her husband expect to travel around the states in their RV.
14-NUVA-1691