Artie Meyers, a 74-year-old plumber from Port Jefferson Station, hurt his back while unloading a boiler from the back of his Jeep in 2018. He suffered with severe back pain after the incident. When he got a postcard in the mail about a Back & Neck Pain Center seminar at Mather Hospital, he signed up. After the seminar, Artie made an appointment to see Katlyn Conville, the Nurse Practitioner for the Back & Neck Pain Center. Since he already had imaging done, Katlyn was able to review it during the evaluation. She recommended he see neurosurgeon, Robert Galler, DO MPH. She even scheduled the appointment for Artie.
He waited as long as he could tolerate the pain, even becoming bed bound, before finally having the surgery on his birthday in November, 2020. Artie had a laminectomy on his L3, 4 & 5 at Mather Hospital with Dr. Galler.
“It’s an amazing procedure,” remarked Artie. Afterwards he did physical therapy (PT) at Mather Hospital. “The people at PT were very nice to me,” said Artie. “Even though I’m athletic, at the time I didn’t want to move that much. They got me moving again and back in the zone,” said Artie. After three months of physical therapy, Artie was grateful to be able to get back to work and continue his Tai-Chi.