Finding Her Way Back to Feeling Like Herself

Find­ing Her Way Back to Feel­ing Like Herself

For Michele T., the pain start­ed grad­u­al­ly enough that she did­n’t think much of it at first. It began in Decem­ber 2025, and for sev­er­al months, she tried to push through it, assum­ing it might even­tu­al­ly go away.

By May 2026, that became hard­er to do. The pain had spread into her arms and shoul­ders, and she was also expe­ri­enc­ing headaches. More con­cern­ing, she had begun los­ing strength in her right arm and fingers.

The weak­ness start­ed chang­ing the way she went about her day. Writ­ing and typ­ing became dif­fi­cult, and she found her­self hav­ing to rely on her left hand for things she would nor­mal­ly do with­out think­ing. Even every­day tasks, like wash­ing dish­es, became more challenging.

“I’m right-hand dom­i­nant and I was drop­ping things a lot,” Michele said. ​“Hav­ing to read­just dur­ing that time peri­od and fig­ure out how to use my left hand was difficult.”

Michele was also bal­anc­ing her work as a teacher with rais­ing three chil­dren. With so much going on in her day-to-day life, she ini­tial­ly thought her symp­toms might sim­ply be part of the phys­i­cal toll of keep­ing up with it all.

“I thought once school got over, things would get bet­ter,” she said. ​“And they didn’t.”

That was when Michele knew she need­ed to find out what was real­ly going on.

She went to Quin­cy Med­ical Group’s (QMG) Kaho­ka Clin­ic, where she ini­tial­ly tried phys­i­cal ther­a­py. When that did­n’t help, Dr. Neville Cren­shaw, a QMG fam­i­ly prac­tice physi­cian, ordered an MRI. After review­ing the results, he referred her to QMG Ortho­pe­dic Spine Sur­geon Dr. Philip Mein­hardt.

By the time Michele met Dr. Mein­hardt in July, she was ner­vous about what might come next. Dr. Mein­hardt explained that the MRI showed a large disc her­ni­a­tion in Michele’s neck that was press­ing on a nerve and caus­ing the severe pain and weak­ness in her arm. He rec­om­mend­ed an ante­ri­or cer­vi­cal dis­cec­to­my and fusion, a min­i­mal­ly inva­sive pro­ce­dure that could be per­formed on an out­pa­tient basis.

Although Michele under­stood that surgery could help, know­ing she need­ed a pro­ce­dure brought its own set of con­cerns. She had nev­er had surgery under anes­the­sia, and as a sin­gle mom, she was think­ing about what recov­ery would mean for her and her children.

“He was very, very adamant that I would be fine,” Michele said. ​“He under­stood that I was very ner­vous, but he con­tin­ued to reas­sure me that this was some­thing he did reg­u­lar­ly. He also under­stood my con­cern, and that meant a lot to me.”

For Michele, that reas­sur­ance was impor­tant. Dr. Mein­hardt’s con­fi­dence did­n’t make her con­cerns feel insignif­i­cant. Instead, she felt he rec­og­nized that she was ner­vous and took the time to help her feel com­fort­able mov­ing forward.

Feel­ing cared for from the start

On August 28, Michele under­went surgery at the QMG Surgery Cen­ter. What stood out to her most was how atten­tive the staff was through­out the experience.

“I felt like the staff was real­ly there for me,” Michele said. ​“They were above and beyond in my opinion.”

The nurs­es checked on her reg­u­lar­ly as she pre­pared for surgery, answered her ques­tions, and made sure she was com­fort­able. Those small moments helped Michele feel cared for as she pre­pared for a pro­ce­dure that was new and unfa­mil­iar to her.

“They were very much, ​‘This is what’s going to hap­pen next. These are the things we’re going to do for you,’ ” she recalled.

Dr. Mein­hardt checked on her before surgery, answered her ques­tions, and reas­sured her again. The anes­the­sia team also explained what would hap­pen as she went to sleep and when she woke up. For Michele, know­ing what to expect helped ease some of the uncertainty.

That same lev­el of care con­tin­ued after surgery, leav­ing a last­ing impres­sion on her.

“The nurs­es there are amaz­ing and so car­ing,” she said. ​“Every sin­gle nurse, and Dr. Mein­hardt, had such a car­ing bed­side man­ner. It was top notch.”

The sup­port also con­tin­ued after she returned home. Michele appre­ci­at­ed being able to reach Sta­cy L., Dr. Mein­hardt’s nurse, when­ev­er ques­tions came up dur­ing her recovery.

Look­ing for­ward to feel­ing like her­self again

Michele’s recov­ery has gone well, and she has con­tin­ued heal­ing at home with min­i­mal pain as she pre­pares to return to school.

“I hon­est­ly feel fan­tas­tic,” Michele said. ​“I think going back to school, I’m going to feel so much bet­ter and just like myself again.”

After months of pain, weak­ness, and uncer­tain­ty, Michele is look­ing for­ward to return­ing to the class­room and get­ting back to the every­day activ­i­ties that had become so difficult.

Look­ing back on her expe­ri­ence, Michele said she would rec­om­mend both Dr. Mein­hardt and the team at the QMG Surgery Cen­ter to any­one fac­ing a pro­ce­dure. ​“I would rec­om­mend Dr. Mein­hardt and his staff to any­one need­ing a pro­ce­dure done, and I would rec­om­mend QMG’s Surgery Cen­ter to have it done at, hands down,” she said.

Her mes­sage for some­one who may be ner­vous about see­ing a spine sur­geon is to start with a con­ver­sa­tion. ​“I would encour­age any­one to go see Dr. Mein­hardt and give him a chance to explain what’s going on with their spe­cif­ic needs,” Michele said. ​“He lis­tens. He under­stands from a per­son­al side, too.”

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