Coloradan 'Super Excited' To Finally Be Able To Have Her Back Surgery
(CBS4) - A ban on elective surgeries was lifted Monday as part of Gov. Jared Polis' safer-at-home phase of the Colorado response to the coronavirus outbreak. Lori Hopper, a Castle Rock women who is scheduled for back surgery on Tuesday, said she is excited and a little scared.
Hopper is looking forward to going rafting again with her husband, David, or wakeboarding, or hiking through Garden of the Gods. She is excited for the day her excruciating back pain will be gone.
She described it as, "... like burning sensation and then pinching twinges, the kind of thing that just literally will stop me in the middle of a conversation."
Lori has scoliosis and a pinched nerve in her spine. She was set for surgery at UCHealth University of Colorado Hospital on March 19. But on March 16, the governor postponed elective surgeries because of the pandemic.
"I understood why we we're doing this, but I was terribly disappointed," she told CBS4 Health Specialist Kathy Walsh.
Hopper, an institutional compliance and privacy officer on the Anschutz Campus, has been waiting for the surgery to be rescheduled for six weeks.
"Now, her functionality is at risk," said Dr. Evalina Burger, Lori's surgeon and Professor and Chair of Orthopedics at the University of Colorado School of Medicine on the Anschutz Medical Campus.
Burger is getting Hopper into the operating room just one day after the elective surgery ban was lifted.
"Our hospital is actually more safe than going to the grocery store," said Burger.
Hopper had to be tested for COVID-19. Burger said there is enough PPE to protect patients and providers. There will be social distancing, and fewer patients lined up for surgery. Patients will have private rooms, and they will be watched over via telehealth.
"The odds are good enough that I would have it myself," said Burger.
"I am super excited because now my light at the end of the tunnel is back," said Hopper.
She is also anxious and a little scared, but ready to be pain-free.
"I can't wait to have that joy in life back again."