From Spine Surgery to the Starting Line: An Runner’s Comeback Story

Thirty-six-year-old Kathleen Smith of Maryland has been a hardcore athlete her entire life. She started softball at age four and played through college. Back pain has always been a part of her life since at least middle school, but athletic trainers helped her manage it while she was on a team.

After college, she moved on to racing triathlons, something she’s done since 2011. “Training is the hardest part of any sport but I love doing it. After a while though, I was getting intense back pain, soreness, and stiffness. At first, I thought it was from my bike so I got it refitted. But I was still feeling a lot of pain. So I did physical therapy, dry needling, strength training, went to a chiropractor, did heat and BioFreeze, got epidural shots, and was taking two 500mg Tylenol every day….Nothing helped,” Kathleen explains.

She ended up having back surgery in early 2022 — a microdiscectomy — in South Florida to fix a vertebrae that had protruded painfully in 2001, likely from a car accident years earlier. She says the doctor did a great job and she was feeling so good after the procedure that three months later, she ran a half marathon. “That might not have been the best thing to do but I was pain-free for the first time since I was a kid and I was just so happy. If I could run like that, I was definitely going to do it,” Kathleen explains.

She did another 4 half-marathons after that and the next year pushed herself even further by doing a CrossFit competition. Those intense and repetitive body weight activities left her in so much pain the next day, that she quickly realized her back problems had returned. This time the pain intensified quickly. It shot down her right leg and soon she had trouble standing for more than a few seconds at a time. Then she started experiencing nerve damage in her leg and foot and couldn’t feel her toes. She even had to use a wheelchair when going places with her husband if standing was required for long periods.

When she came to Dr. Jazini, he started with an epidural shot but it did nothing for her pain so they started talking about other solutions including surgical intervention. Dr. Jazini discussed her options — a spinal fusion or a disc replacement and she had concerns about both options. “My Uncle and Grandma had spinal fusions so I was educated on that and, as a runner and athlete, I was worried about how those procedures limit motion,” Kathleen explains. “I didn’t know anyone who had a disc replacement so Dr. Jazini educated me on it and I did a lot of research on my own. My biggest worry was — will I be able to return to triathlons. There was no way of knowing if my nerve damage would recover. It was a hard time. I remember thinking at one point that I just couldn’t live like this anymore though so I knew I needed surgery of some kind.”

Ultimately, she opted for a full lumbar disc replacement to preserve motion and Dr. Jazini performed it in July of 2023. Kathleen spent one night in the hospital and immediately felt different after the procedure. “I felt it right away,” she recalls. “My leg pain was gone. I got all my nerves back. I had some surgery pain but no back or leg pain anymore. I was stiff but I felt so good.”

Ever the athlete, she was anxious to get back to vigorous exercise, but this time she took it slow. On her third day post-op, she walked up and down stairs. She was moving by the end of the week, went back to work after two weeks, and then began to go for long walks with ankle weights. She talked with Dr. Jazini a lot about how to increase her activity and intensity. She didn’t get on a bike or return to jogging until she discussed it with Dr. Jazini.

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Four months after her surgery, she asked Dr. Jazini if she could do a half marathon and he initially told her no. “But he let me do a 10k,” Kathleen says laughing. “He made me see I needed to really get my muscles stronger before returning to that higher level of racing.”

The 10k went great and now Kathleen has her sights set on a half marathon. In the meantime, she’s also gotten married, gone to Paris to watch the Olympics, bought and moved into a new house, and is living pain-free. Her training these days involves running up to 6 miles three days a week and riding her Peloton and an outdoor bike. She also regularly plays pickleball, goes paddle boarding, and swims.

“I’m getting back to being the athlete I was, if not better,” Kathleen says. “I was a podium triathlete and I believe I’ll get there again. I’m competitive in general so I also want to do a half Iron Man and come in first and then find the next thing. I have no plans of stopping this level of exercise anytime soon and with a healthy back now — I know I can do it.”