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Our Personal Story
Or
Why did a Urologic Surgeon and a Dental Hygienist
start a Prolotherapy practice?
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Dr. Johnson is 50 years old. Having been active and athletic his entire life, he picked up his share of aches and pains along the way. Though in good shape for his age, the pain in his low back had been nagging, and getting worse, for 15 years. He had back spasms that would on occasion put him in bed for a day. Typically a massage would loosen the spasm. One day he woke with back spasm that was worse than usual. After a day of bending oddly at the waist and
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being unable to straighten up, he went to get an ‘emergency’ massage at the hospital fitness center. The massage did not help. In fact, he could not get off the massage table. From the table, he called his Orthopedic doctor, who sent a wheelchair to get him. After a quick exam, Dr. Johnson was admitted to the hospital for several days of high-dose steroids, and bedrest. The MRI showed several levels of disk space narrowing and ‘moderate degenerative disease’. The Orthopaedic Surgeon told Dr. Johnson that he would need to dramatically and permanently curtail his physical activity (No stress or strain on the back, no lifting, not even going up and down stairs). He would be managed with long-term anti-inflammatory medicine, intermittent steroids, and physical therapy. But there was no hope that he would do anything but gradually get worse. The best modern Orthopaedics could offer is that he would get worse more slowly.
* * *
My name is Dr. Mark Johnson. I am married to a wonderful woman named Holley. We have seven children. Holley is a Dental Hygienist and a Realtor, in addition to raising our family. We have a busy and interesting life. We do mission work. One or more of us has been to Ukraine, Mexico, Romania, Haiti, and Mozambique doing mission work. Our oldest daughter is in the Peace Corps in Jordan.
I am a Surgeon by training, and have been practicing in Nashville for fifteen years as one of the leading surgeons at one of the finest hospitals in the country. I love my job. But, based on the conversation with my Orthopaedic Surgeon, I was deeply concerned not only about working around the house and recreation, but also about my profession. Bending over an operating table for several hours is more strenuous than most people realize. I though I might be facing some professional limitations in the future as well.
Then I made a phone call that changed my life. I called an old friend in Chicago, Dr. Ross Hauser, who practices Rehabilitative Medicine. He was mentored by, and took over the practice of, the foremost Prolotherapist in the world, Dr. Gustav Hemwall. For years, Ross had been sending me copies of books he had authored on Prolotherapy, but honestly I had not taken the time to read them. I explained to Ross what was going on with my back, and what my doctor had said. I asked for his opinion. He explained that I was an excellent candidate for Prolotherapy.
I started reading Dr. Hauser’s books. I also spend six weeks collecting and reading all the available literature on Prolotherapy. What I found surprised me. Here is a technique that has been known and practiced since the 1930’s. The mechanism and effectiveness of the treatment have been carefully analyzed in many published scientific studies. Prolotherapy can successfully treat significant, debilitating, disabling problems found in many, many people. And it is very safe when properly administered. I will have to say that I was puzzled as to why a technique that is so well documented for 70 years, so effective, and so safe, and which can be used to treat so many patients, is known and practiced by so few physicians.
I went to see Dr. Hauser. He examined me, and explained how Prolotherapy could be used to treat me. I had a treatment. The treatment hurt. However, within five minutes my back was totally pain free for the first time in several years, and I stood up completely straight. The pain stayed away for five weeks. Ultimately, I received four treatments at intervals of about six weeks. My back pain is now totally gone, and my back has the strength I remember when I was 25 years old. I was stunned by this result.
Holley had a wreck four years ago. She was hit in the driver side door by an unlicensed teenager going about 40 miles an hour at impact. She could easily have been killed or maimed, but, praise God, she only had ‘soft tissue’ injuries. Many people, including many physicians, do not appreciate how much pain can be caused by things that do not show up on x-rays. Holley had significant, activity altering pain in her back and right elbow (she shielded her face with her right arm as her head shattered the door window) after two years of physical therapy and faithfully following every recommendation of her rehab medicine doctors and physical therapists.
Holley was treated the same day I received my first treatment. That single treatment dramatically improved her back pain. She subsequently received a second limited back treatment and two elbow treatments. Holley is now pain free and has returned to her pre-accident activity level. Holley and I can attest to the remarkable results that can be achieved by Prolotherapy.
In addition to reading about Prolotherapy, and receiving it, I assisted Dr. Hauser in a missionary setting treating hundreds of patients using Prolotherapy. I heard scores of patients with stories of moderate to severe pain and disability who were being helped or cured by this treatment. It became clear that this treatment achieves very good results, results that no other kind of treatment can achieve, in patients with very serious problems. I also found that no one in Tennessee is offering this treatment, other than a Professor of Dentistry at Vanderbilt, who uses it to treat TMJ.
This raised a question for me. That is, how could I know this much about Prolotherapy, and benefit this much from Prolotherapy, and not use that knowledge to help people? I asked my friend Dr. Hauser how I could become proficient enough at this technique to treat my own patients. He offered to mentor me in the same way that he was trained in this technique. In addition to being a highly skilled Prolotherapist, he is a gifted teacher and mentor.
One interesting subplot in this story is that I met Ross while teaching a Bible study 20 years ago in Chicago. He became a Christian while attending that study. For me to see him continue in the faith, and doing medical missionary work, is in itself a joy. As he mentored me, I experienced an outpouring of enthusiasm, generosity, and love that touched me deeply on many levels. The teacher became the pupil.
God has a sense of humor. I want to express my most sincere gratitude to Dr. Hauser, to his wife Marion, and to the staff of Caring Medical in Oak Park, Chicago, for the gift of health and healing they have conveyed to me and to Holley.
I am grateful to God that Holley and I were not content with ‘the best that modern medicine has to offer’. If we had been, we would both still be in pain. We sought, and found, an alternative in ‘alternative medicine’ that prompted our bodies to heal.
I look forward to using my personal experience with Prolotherapy, as well as my professional training (which included skills honed over 20 years as a surgeon), to help people in my area regain an active, pain-free life. That is the way God designed us to live. Sometimes we just need a little help to get there. Can I help you?
To make an appointment with Dr. Johnson, email him or call 615-506-0536.
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