Mary Elizabeth Baker’s back caused her pain, but she was not sure what the source was.

In 2019, she went to the doctor because the pain increased in significance. The doctor diagnosed her with spondylolisthesis. Her L5 vertebra suffered a pars fracture.

Mary Elizabeth took 6 weeks off from activities to see if her pain would lessen, but it did not seem to help. Even bowling would cause her muscle spasms and she could not sleep through the night.

When discussing surgery with her dance friends, they asked her if the screws and rods would cause her to lose her flexibility.

“In the scheme of things, dance doesn’t matter,” she said. “If I have to quit dance that’s okay.”

Mary Elizabeth did Schroth PT for a little while to build her core strength in an attempt to try and stabilize her pars fracture with muscle strength. She even tried bracing for awhile Unfortunately despite her best efforts, it didn’t stop her pain. Trying Schroth PT and bracing before hand gave her a solid justification to proceed with surgery, knowing she had tried everything else she could first.

She was happy to be able to explore her options and “try it all” before proceeding to surgery. As Dr. Hey would say, “informed decision making is everything!”

Surgery was always an option for Mary Elizabeth, but by the time that was the best decision she was ready.

“[My pain] effected real life and that was one of our main decisions to do surgery,” Mary Elizabeth said.

She felt nervous on the way to the hospital. When she arrived, Dr. Hey asked her if she got a good night’s sleep even though he was the one doing the surgery.

After her surgery, she was able to more comfortably sit at a baseball game.

Four months later, she went back to dancing again and is feeling great.