Graceful movement
If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. That mindset is usually reserved for riding a bike or interviewing for a job.
In Grace Sorrentino’s case, it could apply to her journey with leg and foot pain, which resulted in two lower spine surgeries to get her back to her normal, active life.
Grace, a 72-year-old retired cardiac ICU nurse from a large hospital in Springfield, Ill., is no stranger to the medical profession and the potential for high-quality care to impact the lives of patients.
Steps toward surgery
Following her retirement in 2018, Grace started experiencing leg and foot pain that twisted its way into affecting her daily life. After seeking care in central Illinois, she checked the boxes for all the conservative measures, including physical therapy and shots to reduce her pain, and she was ultimately scheduled for surgery on her lower spine.
Her surgeon in the Midwest performed L4-L5 fusion surgery to stabilize her spine – the fusing of the L4 and L5 vertebrae located in the lower, “lumbar” spine, a procedure that can provide relief for conditions like spinal stenosis, disc degeneration and herniated discs.
Grace’s pain had subsided, and she and her husband Dave prepared to make the nearly 900-mile move from Springfield to the Lowcountry, a region that held lots of fond memories from past vacations on Hilton Head Island.
Second verse, same as the first
Not long after their move to Sun City, Grace’s pain started again. Simple activities, such as grocery shopping with her husband, became excruciating as her pain persisted.
Grace followed the same process, exhausting all conservative measures before turning, once again, to surgery. After her primary care provider recommended Dr. Andrew Castro, board-certified orthopedic spine surgeon at Beaufort Memorial, Grace decided to talk to the surgeon about her options.
“He spent so much time talking to me about it and answering my questions,” Grace said.
She wasn’t excited about the prospect of a second surgery to correct the first procedure – but if she wanted to be able to walk without experiencing debilitating leg and foot pain, Dr. Castro told her, she didn’t have much choice.
Round 2
In October 2023, Grace underwent a revision spine surgery performed by Dr. Castro to not only fix the original L4-L5 lumbar fusion done in her 2018 procedure, but fuse the L3 and L4 vertebrae as well.
Grace said that overall, her experience with Dr. Castro and his nursing staff was “fantastic.”
“I’m a retired nurse, and people in the medical profession, we’re tough on other medical facilities. We have a certain standard of care that we’re looking for,” she said. “I can’t say enough about the care I got at Beaufort Memorial.”
Back on her feet, pronto
With her recovery complete, Grace has been able to get back to enjoying her retirement: she does yoga once a week, a dance exercise class, walks three miles every morning with her husband, golfs to her heart’s content and even picked up a part-time job a few days a week at Beaufort Drug Company’s lunch counter.
A travel opportunity arose in October 2024 – Grace and her husband were a part of a large group of family and friends that got to experience “la dolce vita” on a Mediterranean cruise that took them to destinations in Italy (Rome, Naples, Sicily and Venice), plus Greece and Croatia.
Without her revision spine surgery, Grace said she could never have dreamed of traveling or being on her feet – or doing any of the things she loves that make up her lifestyle here in the Lowcountry.
“Before the surgery, I couldn’t walk 10 feet,” she said. “Now, there’s not much I don’t do…honestly, I gave Dr. Castro a hug. I told him, ‘I know you don’t want to hear this’ – because he’s so humble – ‘but you gave me my life back.’”
