Patient Gets Moving Again After Innovative Spine Surgery

William Charles Chase Returns to Work, Church Activities, Travel After Treatment at Resurgens Orthopaedics

When William Charles Chase of Cherokee County hurt his back last year, his wife thought he might be sitting around the house for the rest of his life.

But thanks to an innovative treatment from Dr. Michele Perez at Resurgens Orthopaedics, Chase, 55, is back at work at his security business as well as at his church, Sixes United Methodist in Canton, where he is mission director and facilities manager.

After injuring his lower back, Chase said, "I couldn't bend over. Lying down didn't help. Sitting down didn't help. I couldn't sleep at night because the pain was so bad. Dr. Perez first tried cortisone shots and that didn't help. Then she did an epidural and that didn't help. But after she did the radiofrequency—within a couple of days there was no more pain. I could sleep at night."

Dr. Perez performed a radiofrequency ablation (RFA), which is a procedure that uses an electrical current produced by a radio wave to heat up a small area of nerve tissue, thereby decreasing pain signals from that specific area.

"He got almost 100 percent relief with the RFA and is back to working in his yard and going on vacation with his wife," Dr. Perez said.

"I do yard work, I even used a tiller—things I used to do before I hurt my back."

In addition to his work at his firm, Chase Security, Chase was able to return to activities with his church's youth group, including leading a mission trip to the Domician Republic.

"I still have no back pain," he said. "I do yard work, I even used a tiller—things I used to do before I hurt my back."

In October, Chase and his wife went to Disney World to celebrate his birthday and he said that walking all over the theme park "didn't bother my back at all."

They have also bought a 28-foot camper and drove up the east coast through Virginia and back to Charleston this summer, then down to Florida and back.

"When I had my back problems, I couldn't sit in an airplane," Chase said. "Coming back from the Dominican Republic, I even slept on the plane, which I was never able to do before. I love the folks at Resurgens. They're wonderful."

Dr. Perez's areas of expertise include physical medicine and rehabilitation, non-operative spine care, musculoskeletal medicine, and electrodiagnostic medicine. She competed her medical degree at Louisiana State University Medical Center in New Orleans, Louisiana, and her residency at Emory University in Atlanta. She practices in the Chastain and Towne Lake offices of Resurgens.