Barrow Patient Reclaims Retirement After Scoliosis Surgery

Suzanne McFerrin shares her story of getting back to travel after a complex spine surgery for scoliosis at Barrow Neurological Institute. The globetrotting retiree says her back hasn’t felt this good in 40 years.

After scaling a series of ladders up seven floors, Suzanne McFerrin summited the 100-foot-tall round tower at St. Canice’s Cathedral in Kilkenny, Ireland. She basked in the 360-degree views of the verdant Irish countryside with her husband, who had watched in amazement as his wife ascended 121 steps without difficulty.

“I told a couple of other tourists at the top that, one year before, I was using a walker,” recalled Suzanne, who was nearing her 72nd birthday at the time. “They were quite surprised, as it was not an easy climb.”

Conquering the round tower was just one of many activities Suzanne enjoyed on her vacation last summer, since symptoms like back pain and leg weakness no longer left her on the sidelines.

About nine months before the trip, the Arizona resident underwent a complex spine surgery with neurosurgeon Jay D. Turner, MD, PhD, at Barrow Neurological Institute in Phoenix. Dr. Turner performed a spinal reconstruction surgery to treat Suzanne’s severe and progressive scoliosis, as well as a fenestration to open and drain an unrelated cyst that was pressing on her spinal cord.

“It’s been amazing, all of the difference in the past year,” said her husband of nearly two decades, Jim Schmidtlein, a few months after they returned from Europe. “Because over the previous 20 years, I had seen Suzanne go from being able to join me at the gym three times a week, and travel and hike as much as we did, to not being able to do any of that.”

Rewinding the (Often Painful) Tapes

Suzanne isn’t quite sure when she began developing scoliosis, as screenings to detect this spinal deformity weren’t as common during her childhood as they are today. Scoliosis—an abnormal sideways curvature of the spine—usually appears during the adolescent growth spurt between the ages of 9 and 15.

With episodic back pain that was mostly manageable with rest and NSAIDs, Suzanne’s circumstances shifted in her 40s when an intravertebral disc ruptured in her lower back. When healthy, these discs enable movement, provide stability, and absorb shock. However, these discs can rupture—also known as a herniated disc—due to injury, wear-and-tear related to aging, or a combination of both. This rupture causes the disc’s soft center to push through the tough outer layer, and the jelly-like center then presses on the spinal nerves. This compression can cause symptoms like pain, numbness, and weakness. Where someone feels those symptoms depends on the part of the spine affected.

Suzanne underwent a minimally invasive procedure known as a microdiscectomy to remove the protruding disc material from her lumbar spine and relieve the pressure from her spinal nerves. “Then, nothing much happened until I hit menopause, which was in my mid-50s,” Suzanne recalled. “The scoliosis was just getting worse and worse and worse.”

Suzanne is lactose-intolerant, but the registered dietitian consistently took calcium and vitamin D supplements in an effort to support her bone health. She also underwent physical therapy and steroid injections in her neck. Still, her back pain intensified.

When she reached her late 50s, Suzanne underwent an open discectomy to completely remove two intravertebral discs from her cervical spine and fuse the adjacent bones together to stabilize her neck. Although the surgery went well, it didn’t resolve all of her symptoms.

“Basically, my spine is sort of a mess,” Suzanne said. “It’s just kind of my unfortunate thing in life.”

The pain began extending into Suzanne’s legs and was accompanied by weakness. Suzanne’s worsening symptoms gradually robbed her of her passions, like traveling and hiking. Sitting for long periods, such as in a car or on a plane, became increasingly uncomfortable. Plus, her reduced mobility and stamina made sightseeing a challenge.

“I mean, you couldn’t even walk on the beach in a straight line,” Jim said to her. The couple owns a timeshare in Hawaii—one of their favorite places to escape the scorching Phoenix summers.

Everyday tasks became more difficult, too. Suzanne began relying on the support of a walker to get around, struggled to sleep comfortably through the night, and couldn’t even tolerate standing on hard floors.

“My daughter has tile in her house, and I had to go in and just immediately sit down,” Suzanne said. “I couldn’t even help with dinners.”

Despite taking a muscle relaxer before bed, Suzanne often awoke in the middle of the night with excruciating spasms in her legs. “I don’t even know how to explain it,” she said. “It was just bizarre movements and cramping. It wasn’t just muscle cramping; it was like the tendons were tightening up.”

She’d move from her bed to a zero-gravity recliner, take a second muscle relaxer as directed, and get a couple more hours of sleep before the pain would rouse her again. During the day, she eventually needed round-the-clock tramadol to manage her pain. She was concerned with how much medication she needed, but she felt miserable if she missed a dose.

Then, she started falling.

“That really pushed the issue,” Jim said. “Like, OK, you can’t put this off anymore.”

Searching for the Right Spine Surgeon

Suzanne researched scoliosis surgeons around the country, ultimately feeling drawn to Dr. Turner because of the reputation of Barrow and the surgeon’s fellowship training in complex spine surgery in both the United States and Switzerland. Not having to travel outside the Phoenix metropolitan area was a bonus for Suzanne and her husband, who reside in the Chandler suburb.

After the consultation with Dr. Turner, later named one of “America’s Best Spine Surgeons” by Newsweek, Suzanne and Jim felt even more confident that they’d made the right choice. “We were so impressed with Dr. Turner and his staff and the time they spent with us,” Suzanne said. “They answered every single question and explained what they were going to do. It was amazing.”

Suzanne learned that degenerative scoliosis wasn’t the only reason for her symptoms; she had also developed a cyst in the arachnoid space within her spinal column. As the middle layer of the meninges, the arachnoid mater—named for its resemblance to a spider web—helps to cover and protect the spinal cord.

Arachnoid cysts can be congenital, meaning present at birth, or acquired. Oftentimes, they do not require any treatment. In Suzanne’s case, however, the fluid-filled sac was pressing on her spinal cord and contributing to her pain, weakness, and falls.

There is no known association between arachnoid cysts and scoliosis. “This was a pretty rare combination and mostly just bad luck,” Dr. Turner explained. “Though sometimes spinal cord pathology can result in scoliosis, I don’t think it was the cause of hers.”

The Day Fortunes Reversed

In October 2023, Suzanne underwent surgery for both scoliosis correction and draining of the arachnoid cyst. The incision spanned her mid-back, known as the thoracic spine, to the base of her spine, called the sacrum. Correction of the spinal deformity required removing the joints to loosen the spine, realigning the spine with screws and rods, and fusing the bones together. The arachnoid cyst treatment required creating an opening in the spine by removing bone and then accessing the membrane around the spinal cord. Her incision was closed with 72 staples, Jim recalled.

Suzanne spent two nights in the Neuro-Intensive Care Unit and three nights in a stepdown area before moving to the Barrow Neuro-Rehabilitation Center’s inpatient unit.

Jim, a retired nurse, admired the clinical staff’s ability to keep Suzanne both comfortable and productive—balancing her postoperative healing with her need to actively participate in rehabilitation activities.

“Both the physical therapist and the occupational therapist worked her hard, but at the same time, they were very flexible and extremely understanding,” Jim recalled. “When you were having a bad day, they would modify what they needed to do. I think a lot of it is working with neuro patients all the time; they are really focused, and they understand what you’re going through.”

Suzanne agreed. “It was the best thing that possibly could have happened to me because they have marvelous staff there.”

The inpatient neuro-rehabilitation unit discharged Suzanne after a two-week stay, with the recommendation to continue her therapies at Barrow on an outpatient basis.

Recovery First, Travel Later

Throughout her recovery, Suzanne and Jim were diligent in caring for her wound to prevent infection—the part of the scoliosis surgery that worried Suzanne the most. She remembered seeing severe postoperative infections during her own career in a hospital setting.

“We were so careful,” Suzanne said. “We did everything right and, of course, didn’t have any problems. Jim couldn’t have done any better, because he had to take care of my back.”

Suzanne took her first post-surgery trip about six months after the procedure, visiting family and friends in Missouri, where she and Jim lived before moving to the Sonoran Desert for its warm winters. Tolerating the plane rides to and from—as well as the drives around—the Midwest was a promising sign as they prepared for a busy summer season of travel.

They kicked off their adventures a few months later, starting with five weeks in Hawaii. Suzanne felt overjoyed to be able to snorkel and walk the sandy beaches without pain. Still, Jim wondered if their European itinerary might be too much. While they wouldn’t be traveling with a group and could go at their own pace, was she ready for activities like hiking 4.5 miles up 162 stone steps at the Giant’s Causeway nature preserve? “That was when you said, at the end of the day, that you didn’t know if I could do that,” Suzanne said to Jim, adding, “I didn’t even find it that difficult!”

“Yeah, that was a good day,” Jim replied.

They also ventured to England, where they hiked in Yorkshire Dales National Park and walked the streets of the Cotswolds, admiring the historic buildings with thatched rooftops and scouting out pubs for dinner.

Suzanne also returned to everyday activities with significantly less pain and renewed independence. She had stopped driving before the surgery due to the pain and weakness in her legs and found herself out of practice. But thanks to the driving simulator at the Barrow Neuro-Rehabilitation Center, Suzanne got a refresher course and felt confident getting back behind the wheel. “I’ll hop right on the highway and not think anything of it,” she said.

Suzanne also walks about four days per week on a trail near her home, enjoying the community lakes and their resident waterfowl while visiting with her neighbors.

“Everybody on the trail I had met was like, ‘Oh, my gosh, look at you! Where’s your walker?’” Suzanne said. She gradually worked her way out of the walker after surgery with the help of her therapists at Barrow.

Suzanne also raves to her neighbors about Balance Masters, a 30-minute course led by a Barrow physical therapist, which is available for free and on demand via the Institute’s YouTube channel. “It’s improved my balance amazingly,” Suzanne said.

Next on the Docket 

Suzanne still notices a sensation in her hips, as if she’s wearing a low-hanging belt, due to the screws placed in her pelvis. She feels the sensation more when leaning back against something, but she said it’s not painful. She does still experience some twinges of pain and cramping in her legs at night, but to a much less severe degree.

“It’s remarkable to see how far Suzanne has come,” Dr. Turner said. “She had a complex problem with an expected long and challenging recovery. Her phenomenal outcome is a credit to her tenacity.”

“My quality of life is just so improved. It’s unbelievable.”

-Suzanne McFerrin, Barrow Patient

When asked what’s next on their travel itinerary, Suzanne and Jim said they’ve been tossing around the idea of visiting Alaska or returning to one of their favorite places, the Canadian Rockies. They’d also like to revisit the Grand Canyon, but this time with their grandchildren—perhaps all five of them!  

Wherever they choose to go next, Suzanne is thrilled to be able to enjoy her retirement to the fullest, explaining that this is the best her back has felt in 40 years. “My quality of life is just so improved,” she said. “It’s unbelievable.”