It was late 2023 when Marisette V., 65, of Verona, Pa., started feeling jolts of pain down the backs of her legs.
At first, Marisette attributed the pain to sitting too much during stressful workdays, but the symptoms quickly worsened.
This pain was concerning for the healthy and active software engineer. She was a competitive rower and took care of herself. So, she tried everything to take control of the situation fast — stretching, massage therapy, physical therapy, and chiropractic care — all without improvement.
“It was getting so bad, I couldn’t even do a bridge exercise,” Marisette explains. “Then I started experiencing neurological symptoms like numbness, and I knew something was seriously wrong.”
That’s when Marisette went to her doctor and got a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan. The imaging showed spinal stenosis and low-grade spondylolisthesis. The options were more physical therapy, injections, or a laminectomy — a procedure that removes part of a vertebrae to relieve pressure.
But first, Marisette was encouraged to get a second opinion. A friend mentioned Nitin Agarwal, MD, and she set up an appointment for that same week.
'Going Downhill Fast'
Marisette was still fairly mobile when she came to her first appointment, but each successive appointment got harder to attend.
“I walked into Dr. Agarwal’s office at first,” says Marisette. “Then I had to start using a cane, then a wheelchair. It was obvious that I was going downhill fast.”
Dr. Agarwal was cautious about surgery at first, considering Marisette’s osteopenia, or low bone density. But Marisette was determined to have a bilateral minimally invasive procedure.
By this point, she was losing feeling in her left foot, which made her off-balance, and she started falling. The condition was starting to impact her right leg as well. Dr. Agarwal agreed it was time for surgery.
In late July 2024, after several insurance battles and coverage delays, Marisette received a minimally invasive surgery to stabilize her spine and decompress her nerves via a lateral lumbar interbody fusion at UPMC Presbyterian.
A couple of hours after surgery, the pain had already improved significantly. To Marisette’s and everyone else’s surprise, she went home that same day.
Immediate Pain Relief
“That felt like a miracle,” she says. “Of course, I had a few more days of pain during recovery at home, but I immediately felt pain relief and have been improving ever since.”
But Marisette’s health journey didn’t end there. Imaging before surgery showed tumors on her kidney and pancreas. Because of her history with cancer — a sarcoma in her arm when she was in her 20s — she and her doctors decided to remove her kidney.
On Christmas Eve 2024, Marisette underwent her second surgery of the year. This time, the recovery was a bit more arduous.
“I spent three nights in the hospital; it was rough,” she says. “But I didn’t want to be walking around with potentially another cancer in me.”
Endoscopy revealed the pancreatic tumor was benign, or noncancerous, at the time. A cyst on her pancreas tested positive for intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasm (IPMN). IPMN has a low risk of cancer, but doctors recommended that her condition be monitored. Otherwise, Marisette is hoping this chapter of health concerns is over for her.
“I’m ready to move on and get back to what I love doing, and I can’t thank Dr. Agarwal enough for helping me get here,” she says.
Treating the Whole Person
Marisette credits Dr. Agarwal’s whole team for her swift recovery.
“So much of health care is treating you as a disconnected entity,” she says. “It takes the people who are intimately involved in your care that make the difference, that treat you like a whole person. Everyone had their part to play, and they are serious about doing a good job.”
Marisette is dreaming up her next life phase — retiring to her native Holland to enjoy her good health. She says she’ll miss the Spine and Scoliosis Patient Support Group, the support group Dr. Agarwal’s team has set up through the University of Pittsburgh.
“It’s important to have other people to walk through this with,” she says. “Hearing other people’s stories and knowing you aren’t on this journey alone can be so impactful.”
Marisette’s treatment and results may not be representative of all similar cases.