2/3/2010 - Mark Solomon, 43 years old, regularly works 12-hour days that have him on his feet loading, unloading and then driving a 60-foot, 18-wheeler truck for his family’s wholesale produce business.
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| Thanks to successful pain management treatment, Mark Solomon enjoys the physically demanding work with his family’s wholesale produce company. |
Five years ago, he started getting searing pain in his legs that seemed like sciatica. He tried different positions while driving the truck. He changed his habits by using a ramp rather than jumping off the truck to reduce the strain on his body. The pain did not let up, and, in fact, it spread, growing more constant and leaving him with crippling back pain.
Solomon had several treatments from a chiropractor, took major doses of overthe- counter pain pills and still was miserable. “Nothing was helping,” Solomon said. “I couldn’t sleep—just getting in the truck was agonizing.”
He felt like he was running out of options. “I was terrified of surgery,” Solomon explained. “I don’t even like going to the dentist. And I couldn’t take three months off of work to recuperate.”
Solomon had a much dreaded surgical consultation scheduled when he met the man he now calls a “miracle worker.” NorthShore University HealthSystem (NorthShore) physician Steven Blum, MD, and Solomon were volunteering at the same charitable food drive around the Jewish High Holidays. After hearing Solomon’s story, Dr. Blum encouraged him to visit the Pain Management Center at NorthShore’s Skokie Hospital.
A few days later, Dr. Blum injected two shots of cortisone into the space around Solomon’s spinal cord to treat a severe disk herniation that had pinched nerves and was releasing toxins into Solomon’s system. Experiencing immediate relief, Solomon was back at work the next day.
“Dr. Blum saved my life,” Solomon said. For the past 30 years, Dr. Blum, an anesthesiologist and pain management physician and on faculty at the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine, has focused on caring for patients with both chronic and acute pain.
Using advanced imaging techniques like fluoroscopy to provide real-time images of the spine and affected areas helps physicians direct the injections into the specific nerve roots involved, delivering the medicine straight to the inflamed area, Dr. Blum explained. But it wasn’t the latest technology that convinced Solomon to undergo treatment, it was Dr. Blum.
“I remember heading into the procedure and telling him I was scared to death,” Solomon said. “But he was so calming and reassuring. I trusted him completely.”
Five years later, Dr. Blum and Solomon encountered each other at the annual charitable food drive where they had their first meeting. “Every time I see him, I kiss and hug him,” Solomon said. “I have his cell phone number on my desk.”
Dr. Blum and the other physicians at the Pain Management Center, which has clinics at NorthShore’s Skokie and Evanston Hospitals, provide a wide range of treatment options, leveraging the latest technology for patients suffering from many painful conditions.
For more information about the Pain Management Center at NorthShore, call 847.492-5700 (Ext. 1285) at Evanston Hospital and 847.492-5700 (Ext. 1286) at Skokie Hospital.