Donald Corenman MD DC | Spine Surgeon Colorado

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Weldon
Participant

December 14, 2019 at 6:41 am

Post count: 9

in reply to: Chiara Malfunction Type 1 #31680

Dr. Corenman,

Here is an update on my grandson with the Chiari Malformation Type 1. My daughter did ask the Doctor prior to committing to him, as you suggested, about how many times he had done the operation. It was over 65! He teaches at the state medical school and also practices at the state Children’s Hospital. I have had a relationship with this hospital and its foundation, mostly in the oral health area. The operation was done Wednesday morning and he is doing well through last night, talking and walking but still in pain. We were told to expect this. From my understanding, they did as you described to remove a section of the skull, enlarge the opening at the spine and on the C1 vertebra. He should be released on Sunday or Monday.

Thanks you for your wise counsel!
Weldon

Weldon
Participant

September 19, 2019 at 2:49 pm

Post count: 9

in reply to: Bulging disc between L4 and L5 #31120

Dr. Corenman, here is an update three weeks after receiving a transforaminal epidural injection. This was done by the pain management doctor at the spine center. She had similar credentials as the spine surgeons – top of her class, outstanding resident, and fellowship trained. She spent a considerable time with me doing a detailed explanation of how she would perform the procedure and duplicating some of the physical test that the surgeon’s APRN did two weeks earlier to make sure that she was in total agreement. The big discussion was whether to do this with a local or general anesthesia, which she said most of her patients used. She told me that I would experience pain from both the contrast solution for use with the fluoroscope and the medication due to the volume injected if I chose to use the local. Her reasoning was that I could give her valuable feedback so that she could more accurately inject the medicine to the nerves. I thought I could tough out a little pain. Well, it really HURT. But I am glad that I did it that way. She would asked me three times to describe exactly where it hurt. The first time, the pain looped over the left buttock. Did I say it hurt? The second time the pain was on the outer side of my left thigh. And the third was down my left calf to the outer side of my ankle and then to the front of the lower ankle. Her comment was that helped her to know she needed to inject higher and lower than normal and then thanked me for helping her.

After 45 -60 minutes in recovery (my BP was elevated). I was dismissed to make the 2.5 hour ride back to my home. By the time I got there most of my pain was gone. By noon the next day, I was pain free for the first time in three months. My BP and blood glucose level remained high for the first two weeks but slowly drifted lower. In week three, they are back to normal, though still on metformin that my PA prescribed. Before injury I would walk 8-13k steps a day but after inury, I could barely do 1500 steps with no more than 100 before having to sit. Now I am back up to 6-7K steps per day.

Most importantly, my foot drop symptom improved 50% in the first 48 hours. However, the improvement is pretty much leveled off. I have to really concentrate when walking to control my gait and the drop. Walking slowly also helps to about a 75% improvement.

In addition, to your coaching and the injection, I got a book on steps to a pain free back. Learning how to sleep, stand, sit and walk have helped also. My hope is with the treatment, better habits and PT I can slow down the aging process. And, I played golf again!!! Pain free!! Without your help, this probably would never have happened. Thanks, Weldon

Weldon
Participant

August 17, 2019 at 9:55 am

Post count: 9

in reply to: Bulging disc between L4 and L5 #30899

Dr. Corenman,
Thanks for checking up on me! I made it to one of the doctors with the requirements you suggested. Took me a while to get the CD of my MRI to him from my home medical center but finally got it to him later by FedEx.

He said I had spondylolisthesis. The L4 slipped forward over L5. I also have a bulging disc, which is causing pressure on the nerve. He gave me a steroid pack that has given me much relief after the first three days of six days. Will schedule an epidural steroidal injection for next week.

I will update you as to how well that works.
Thanks again for your deication!
Weldon

Weldon
Participant

August 11, 2019 at 6:58 pm

Post count: 9

in reply to: Bulging disc between L4 and L5 #30865

Dr. Corenman,

I made contact with my friend on the board at Baptist Health in Little Rock. He was going to check about doctors in their Spine Center. Tomorrow, I will have another friend who was helped by Dr. V in Dallas. He is a Board Certified Orthopedic Surgeon, Spine Fellowship Trained. Here is a link to his bio. From it, including his teaching at UT Southwest Medical Center, you may have crossed paths with him.

In my many years involved in promoting oral health the general population and in the medical fields, I am not sure I have met many people who would help a total stranger such as me with a problem. (By the way, in the last few years, I have collaborated with the Delta Dental of Colorado Foundation and even the Colorado Department of Health. Met several great people in Denver.)
Weldon

Weldon
Participant

August 11, 2019 at 11:14 am

Post count: 9

in reply to: Bulging disc between L4 and L5 #30853

Dr. Corenman,

I live in Texarkana, Arkansas with a second home in Fayetteville, Arkansas. I have easy access to care in Little Rock, Dallas – Ft. Worth or Northwest Arkansas. One of my friends got help from Texas Spine Consultants after years of struggling and is now pain free. I just retired from a foundation concentrating in oral health and have some connections with the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. In addition, two of my best friends are past chairs of Mercy Health and Baptist Health and remain on their boards. I hope to speak to them this afternoon in hopes of finding a specialists.

From your reply, it appears that I need to send my MRI results to a specialist right away. I have been taking, meloxicam for inflammation, gabapentin for nerve relief and tinzanidine as a muscle relaxer along with daily exercise. I have made no improvement in the last 30 days.

Thanks,
Weldon

Weldon
Participant

August 11, 2019 at 9:15 am

Post count: 9

in reply to: Bulging disc between L4 and L5 #30846

Dr. Corenman,

Again, thank you for your help, especially over a weekend. You have a passion for helping people!

I read through the link on leg weakness twice. My first thought is that the problem is the L5 Nerve Root. That is because I had noticed I could not control my toes on the left foot from “slapping” the ground as soon as my heel hit. This seemed to match your “foot drop” description. So, I tried to do the “duck walk” and could not keep my toes from hitting the ground. Would this mean that I may need more than PT? Should I share this home test with my PT?
Thanks you again for the help!
Weldon
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Viewing 6 posts - 1 through 6 (of 7 total)

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Donald Corenman, MD, DC

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81 reviews

Eric S

Sep 26, 2021

by Eric S on Donald Corenman, MD, DC

Successful pars repair at 46 years old

Back in November of 2018 (at 46 years old) I came from Vancouver BC to have a pars repair done with Dr. Donald Corenman at the Steadman Clinic in Vail Colorado. I'm finally posting this review nearly three years later in late 2021. The reason I waited so long was I wanted to know the final result before I posted my review. Unfortunately in that time Dr. Corenman has retired. Nevertheless, I want to post this review of Dr. Corenman and his staff at the Steadman Clinic in their excellent treatment of my L5 pars interarticularis.

I fractured my pars at age 42 back in 2014 when rolling on the gym floor, and was denied treatment by the Canadian healthcare system, probably due to my age. First my GP told me there was no surgical option for a pars defect, which was quite incorrect! I tried to live with it, but the symptoms worsened (periodic random spine slippage and weeks of resultant pain after just bending over to tie my shoe, so I eventually learned to mostly squat and hardly bend). When I finally consulted with Canadian spine surgeons, I was told they believed my pars defect had been congenital (since birth). This was absurd, considering I had done extreme martial arts (including jiu jitsu) for years prior, as well as 5 years of reinforcing steel full time in my 20s, probably the hardest job on the back you can find. No pars defect like mine would possibly have allowed this--ergo it was impossible that I had had the defect since birth. I did however have an asymptomatic congenital spina bifida occulta that made me more susceptible to a pars fracture. In 2014 in one instant, I went from having the strongest back people I knew said they'd ever seen, to being unable to safely bend over and tie my shoe without a non-negligible risk of my spine slipping randomly (which would lead to weeks of pain after each occurrence). This was due to the unilateral L5 pars defect, otherwise known as spondylolysis. It was when lying in pain on the floor 4 years later after maybe the 6th spine slippage event post injury, that I had had enough, and resolved to have surgery. If Canada's "universal health care" said no, I would make lemonade from lemons, and find the very best surgeon in the world at pars repairs. That was Dr. Donald Corenman. Dr. Corenman back in 2018 ran a website https://neckandback.com/ that dedicated many pages to the science of every aspect of pars repairs, from eligibility (good discs on MRI), to best surgical techniques (minimal open compared to minimally invasive), best imaging to use (i.e., O-Arm with Stealth imaging vs. older fluoroscopy), the ideal amount of BMP to use and why not use too much or too little, and much more, all to do with pars repairs, pages upon pages of his site just on the pars, with scientific references and his own extensive expert opinion. As a health research statistician, I was very impressed with this. It was in stark contrast to the websites of other spine surgeons which barely gave the pars a word or two, focusing almost exclusively on fusions. I had found the best surgeon in the world for pars repairs, and so after Dr. Corenman personally screened my MRI to ensure my discs were healthy, I booked the surgery.

Being 46 years old at the time of surgery in 2018, with a 4-year-old pars fracture from 2014 combined with a congenital SBO meant my pars fragment was somewhat atrophied, but it was "very solid", said Dr. Corenman in the operative report. Nevertheless, it was challenging with two things to fix, the pars and SBO, and OR time was around 4 hours. Recovery over the following months was guided by a very clear "Spine binder" from the Steadman Clinic with strict rules of "no BLT" (no bending, lifting or twisting), and illustrated physiotherapy guidelines. They even warned patients to avoid fish oil supplements, which could excessively dampen inflammation and hence slow bone healing. They answered many questions I had during months of recovery, with responses coming from the very supportive Lori Fugate (then director of Dr. Corenman's practice), and Ehrich Bean (then physician's assistant at the practice), as well as a couple calls with Dr. Corenman himself after two of the CT scans. Ehrich Bean offered great advice for taking the spine binder conservatively due to the nature of pars repairs vs. fusions. The final post-op CT scan I had was a couple weeks ago at 34 months post-op, and Dr. Corenman had retired, but I got a very positive and informative call from Eric Strauch (current PA at the Steadman Clinic under Dr. Corenman's replacement there, and who had also worked with Dr. Corenman previously). The staff at the Steadman Clinic were extremely supportive all the way through the process. I should mention, the local Canadian spine surgeon did offer me very good post-operative support including antibiotics as needed to deal with a mild surface incision-site infection early on, booking numerous x-rays when I felt something was amiss, as well as booking all four of my post-op CT scans. I am very grateful for that support also.

My final result shows plenty of solid bone across the pars and a healed SBO, with my vertebral body now a solid bone ring instead of being broken at two places as it was pre-op. Does my spine hold up in the real world? You bet! I have recently dug and moved several yards of dirt and sand and gravel by myself (shovel and wheelbarrow!) to fix our water main, pulled roots from the yard, moved several "portable" (these are HUGE) air conditioners up several flights of stairs my myself, and lifted weights. I now run 2 miles (3.2 KM) several times weekly with a hard 100 meter dash in the middle. I bend deeply before each run I go on, with no spine slippage. My spine feels amazing. I can bend over to do exercise, or real word tasks, with no risk of spine slippage.

My sincere thanks to God, Dr. Donald Corenman, Lori Fugate, Ehrich Bean, Eric Strauch, and the Steadman Clinic, as well as the Canadian spine surgeon who offered me excellent post-operative care back in Canada. You have all given me a new lease on life.

Sincerely,
Eric S

Robert S

May 11, 2021

by Robert S on Donald Corenman, MD, DC

Back Fusion Surgery

I had my entire lumbar spine fused in November of 2018. I had scoliosis , with pinched nerves that were so painful I could hardly walk - and standing for more than a few minutes was impossible. Even sitting was painful.
The fusion surgery produced immediate relief! And the recovery was much easier than I expected.
To this day I can do all the activities I love from hiking, to standing in a stream fly fishing to riding my bike long distances - or just walking down the street with my wife.
Kudos to Dr. Corenman and his staff, (including the two Erics) for taking such good care of me!

Leslie R

Jul 9, 2020

by Leslie R on Donald Corenman, MD, DC

TLIF

I had my TLIF surgery on 6/24/2020 by Dr. Corenman, I can not say enough good things about the Dr or his staff. I was always treated with respect and explained everything throughly, that made it easy for everyone to understand. I highly recommend Dr. Corenman and the Steadman Clinic.

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Weldon

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