Read about upcoming changes to UnitedHealthcare coverage.
For Laurie Peek, a fine art photographer based in the New York City suburbs, creativity is everything. After years of raising her family and building a career, she had finally returned to her first love, photography. She saw real success, with a calendar full of shows, openings and gallery submissions. Then, in the spring of 2024, everything started to change.
A Pain That Wouldn't Quit
The pain in her back and legs started as a discomfort. Laurie initially chalked up to a side effect of a medication she was taking. But the pain didn't go away. It grew. An MRI and X-rays revealed the culprit: a lumbar herniation at L4-5, along with scoliosis, pressing on a nerve in her lower back.
The pain was relentless, particularly at night. " I would wake up several times throughout the night," Laurie recalls. "It was a dull, aching pain, but I just couldn't ignore it." The only thing that helped was getting up and walking — sometimes for 45 minutes or more — before the pain would ease enough to allow her to go back to sleep. Driving became difficult. Sitting for any length of time was its own ordeal.
Her world began to shrink. "I was retreating from anything I didn't have to do," she says. Her social life of evening events, civic meetings and gatherings with friends all fell away. Even her photography was becoming harder to sustain.
Trying Everything
Laurie is not someone who gives up easily. Over the months that followed, she tried physical therapy, but even her physical therapist eventually said they had reached the limit of what it could do for her. Laurie tried acupuncture at three different practitioners. Nothing worked.
Her pain management team prescribed medications at the maximum recommended dosage, but even that wasn't always enough. Two attempts at a nerve block made it clear that other options had been exhausted. It was time to consider surgery.
Finding the Right Team
When Laurie came to Weill Cornell Medicine, she met with Dr. Kai-Ming Fu. Dr. Fu reviewed her case and scheduled surgery within approximately 10 days. "I know these people are busy. The odds that you could get a quick surgery are not too likely," Laurie says. Laurie was incredibly happy and touched with the caring way Dr. Fu responded to what she had been going through.
"I really want to cry when I think about it," Laurie says, "because I was in so much pain. It was just going on for months and months. Nothing was working and my whole life is changing because of it." The speed and empathy with which her care team responded meant everything.
A Turning Point
Dr. Fu recommended an endoscopic foraminotomy and discectomy, a minimally-invasive procedure using a tiny camera and specialized instruments that creates more space for the nerve roots.
Laurie's endoscopic foraminotomy and discectomy was performed as a same-day outpatient procedure at Weill Cornell Medicine. When she woke up, something was immediately different. The pain — the constant companion that had upended her life for nearly a year — was gone.
"The surgery was instant relief," she says. Dr. Fu had sent her home with pain medications, just in case, but she ended up barely using them. "The surgery itself was so minimally invasive. I had no pain or discomfort from the surgery whatsoever."
Follow-up care with Dr. Fu's team was equally smooth. Using telehealth, Laurie was able to check in with the team remotely, even sending photos of her healing incision rather than making unnecessary trips into New York city. It was a small but meaningful convenience during recovery.
At her most recent follow-up, there is no indication that a second procedure will be needed.
Life Reclaimed
Today, Laurie is back. Back to her garden, back to her openings and back to the photography that brings her joy. She's walking. She's attending events. She's showing up for her life again.
"I wish I had gotten surgery sooner," she says, reflecting on the months spent hoping other treatments would work. "It's really just given me my life back."
Her advice to anyone facing a similar diagnosis is simple, if hard-won: "Don't wait so long. Don't be afraid of surgery — but go to a spine specialist." She's quick to add that the right surgeon makes all the difference. "You hear bad stories. But I am an evangelist now for Dr. Fu and the surgical cure. He walks on water as far as I'm concerned. It was like a miracle."
Learn more about Dr. Fu today.
Laurie Peek is a fine art photographer based in the New York City area. To see her work, visit lauriepeek.com or follow her on Instagram at @lauriepeek.
