NHS explain the best ways to treat back pain
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The singer, now 78, spent four decades with intense pain and complications emanating from a freak accident back in the 1970s. She had several surgeries over the years but her painful nightmare only came to an end after her spine was broken and reconstructed by surgeons in a high-risk operation. “I thought I was going to die,” the star told People Magazine about being in intensive care following the first part of the surgery in 2018.
The accident occurred back in 1978 when the star was performing a dance choreography at a theatre in New York.
Gaynor tripped over a monitor on stage and woke up the following day with life-changing injuries.
“The next morning, I woke up paralysed from the waist down,” she said about the ordeal in People Magazine.
“I called my boyfriend and said, ‘Please come — I can’t move my legs.’”
Her first surgery took place the same year as the accident and saw her have a ruptured disc removed, and two vertebrae in her spine fused.
These procedures are known in medical parlance as a discectomy and a spinal fusion.
The surgery was meant to help her walk again.
According to Gaynor, the others at her record label declared “the queen is dead” although she came back with the chart-topping song I Will Survive in a back brace.
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But in 1997, she was back in the operating theatre to correct spinal stenosis, which the first surgery had caused.
Spinal stenosis is when the space around the spinal cord – known as the spinal column – narrows.
It can cause chronic pain, numbness, weakness, and tingling in the legs.
Unfortunately, this surgery was also imperfect – it left her with a “back flat”, which is when the lower back flattens out, causing your pelvis to tip forwards.
“There were times when I had to sleep in a chair because I just couldn’t sleep lying down,” said Gaynor, who was given painkillers and anti-inflammatory medicine over the years.
Just under two decades after this surgery, the star had decided she couldn’t cope with the pain and opted to find a different doctor.
He told her she would need something much more “extensive” to sort out the problems for good – which is where the frightening procedure comes in.
Also speaking to People Magazine, Dr. Melamed said he had to perform “one of the most difficult” operations, which involved making the massive changes to her spine.
The procedure, he explained, is “complex” and demands a precise surgeon.
According to the NHS, there are several types of spinal surgeries that may occur.
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