Lou Testa was told that spinal surgery was his only option. But he was frustrated those surgeons didn't seem to appreciate the gravity of their recommendation. That changed with Dr. Mark Tantorski.
Last summer, Lou Testa, an active bakery owner and family man, was walking through his backyard when he suddenly had trouble lifting the front part of his left foot.
"It felt like an electric shock went through my left thigh," Testa says. "I was completely dumbfounded."
He had recently had arthroscopic surgery on his right knee and was scheduled to begin physical therapy in a couple of days, so he didn't seek immediate help. Instead, Testa waited and explained to his physical therapist what happened. She recommended he get it looked at right away, and even put him in touch with an orthopaedic surgeon's office that day.
Following an MRI, the first surgeon he met with told him he needed spinal surgery, which came as a bit of a shock to Testa.
"He told me I needed surgery, but he only spent 10 minutes with me. He gave me a bunch of papers and said they would explain the procedure. That concerned me," he says. "To me, this was a major operation, and he was only going to spend 10 minutes with me?"
When he got home, Testa called his daughter, Karla Testa, who's a doctor, and recounted the episode. She shared her father’s MRI report with a friend who's a spinal surgeon in Colorado. He told her there was no way around the surgery and recommended a colleague, orthopaedic surgeon Mark E. Tantorski, DO, in Chester County, close to her father.
Surgery Was His Best Option
Testa was experiencing a spinal condition called spondylolisthesis, which usually causes lower back pain. It occurs when one of the vertebrae – the bones of your spine – slips out of place onto the vertebra below it.
Physical therapy and/or corticosteroid injections can often relieve symptoms. Testa began receiving injections to the affected part of his back 10 years prior. He said each injection resolved his pain for a couple years. But they were no longer effective, largely because Testa's shifting vertebrae – specifically, his lumbar 4 and 5 at the base of his spine – had created a bone spur that was growing and compressing a nerve. That compression is what ultimately caused his foot drop.
"At this point, surgery was his best option," said Tantorski, who ultimately performed Testa’s operation.
Tantorski made two incisions in Testa's lower back. Each was less than an inch long. Through them, he was able to locate the bone spur and remove enough of it to completely free the affected nerve. And then he fused together the problematic segment of Testa's spine, ensuring that those vertebrae will never change positions again.
"We were fortunate in that he was able to regain all the strength in his left leg. It's the outcome we hope for," Tantorski added. "That's not the case every time. Sometimes the nerve is so traumatized, even with the surgery, we're not able to get a complete recovery of muscle function. In this case, once the fusion process is complete, he should never have to worry about these particular vertebrae again."
This doesn't necessarily mean that Testa won't experience an issue like this again with a different segment of his spine. "The likelihood of that happening is low," Tantorski shared, "but it isn’t zero."
Comforted by Thoughtfulness
Shortly before Christmas, Testa and his wife, Janis, reopened their business, Testa's Bakery, a fixture in Havertown for the last four decades. It had been closed since Lou's knee surgery in June, and he was itching to get back to work. But he was committed to doing it on Tantorski's terms. Since their first meeting a few months' prior, Testa had developed a deep respect for the surgeon.
"I saw two other surgeons before I saw Tantorski. It just didn't feel right with them. But it did with Dr. Tantorski," Testa remembered. "For him to spend 45 minutes with me and explain everything so clearly meant a lot. I was very happy with the way he prepared me for the surgery. And that same thoughtfulness continued through my recovery."
For his part, Tantorski says he approaches each patient as a partner in their care.
"I tell them what's going on with them and offer to help navigate them through their treatment," he says. "But we need to be able to work together, from the preparation for their surgery through the immediate and long-term post-operation period."
Integral to that, he says, is being able to articulate each step in a straightforward way. "Once they have a good understanding of what's going to happen, it's easier for them to feel comfortable with the situation and put their faith in me," Tantorski said.
Testa shared he was also buoyed by the care he received at Chester County Hospital, where his operation was done.
Three months after he returned to the bakery, Testa said he was pain-free. He had not yet recovered the full range of motion in his left foot, but that's expected to happen once the previously compressed nerve completely heals. In the meantime, Testa was delighted to be consumed by preparations for the busy spring holiday season.
I felt completely looked after from the minute I was admitted to the minute I was discharged. I told my wife, "If I ever need to go back into the hospital for any reason, I want it to be this one." - Lou Testa
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