Ken Hurt His Back on His Dream Vacation. After Successful Treatment at Saint Luke’s Pain Management Clinic, He’s Back to Traveling the World

In 2023, Kansas City resident Ken Stewart hiked the Scottish Highlands—in a kilt, no less—as well as Carlton Hill to watch the orange sunrise over Edinburgh.

The next year, the retired high school librarian climbed the steep and ancient stone “stairs of death,” near Machu Picchu, one of the Seven Wonders of the World. 

But for Ken, 74, these life-changing experiences weren’t always a guarantee. In 2010, Ken took his dream vacation to a ranch in Montana. He planned to ride horses around the wide-open countryside—instead he ended the trip with a compression fracture, a type of break that happens when a vertebra collapses or flattens in the spine.

“The pain was so unbearable that when I came home, I could barely lift my suitcases up from the flight,” Ken says.

The search for relief 
Back home in Kansas City, Ken participated in physical therapy at Saint Luke’s and went to the chiropractor to try and ease his back pain. 

For about a year and a half, physical therapy helped—Ken rated his pain anywhere from a two to a four on a 10-point scale. However, the discomfort never went away. 

“At first, I thought it was something I could just ignore, but you shouldn’t do that, and it was just too painful,” Ken says.

Ken decided to make an appointment at Saint Luke’s Pain Management Clinic, which offers treatments for pain, including precision spinal injections—also known as epidural injections—and interventional pain management, such as radiofrequency ablation. 

Experts at Saint Luke’s Pain Management Clinic diagnose and treat patients suffering from chronic or acute pain by creating individualized treatment plans to decrease pain and increase mobility.

Ken met with anesthesiologist Jennifer Elliott, MD, and together, they decided to try an epidural injection in his lower spine. For patients with back pain, this injection delivers anti-inflammatory medicine into the space around the spinal nerves and helps relieve symptoms. 

"I resumed activity immediately after the first shot," Ken says. "It was a night-and-day difference. I was able to get out, have fun outside, and be more active."

Dr. Elliott suggested that Ken might be a good candidate for radiofrequency ablation, a heat treatment that disrupts the nerve endings that transmit pain signals and helps treat pain for longer than epidural injections. 

For the procedure, patients are given a local anesthetic to numb the area but remain awake to answer questions as the provider uses controlled heat to treat the nerves.

On average, radiofrequency ablation relieves pain for six to 18 months. There is no set limit on the number of treatments, as it depends on how long a patient experiences relief and improvement from the ablations.

“The staff at the Pain Clinic were so nice in explaining what to expect during the procedure,” Ken says. “They are used to answering questions and were patient with me, which I appreciated. They make sure you’re comfortable.” 

Dr. Elliott and her team did diagnostic injections to evaluate whether Ken would be able to tolerate the radiofrequency ablation. 

“When we saw he did well with those initial injections, we elected to move forward with the radiofrequency ablation to give him longer-lasting improvement with the pain,” Dr. Elliott says. “This is sometimes the next best option to help them control symptoms and let them live a happy life.”

Life after finding pain relief 
Ken has received three radiofrequency ablation treatments so far, and he says his pain is gone. 

“The treatments have given me a new lease on life,” Ken says. “I’m able to do things that I enjoy.” That includes his impressive international travel, kayaking, and horseback riding as well as more everyday activities like serving as captain of his kickball team, hitting the trails with his dog Duncan, volunteering at a bookstore at church, and singing with the Heartland Men’s Chorus. “I wouldn't be able to do any of this without the treatment,” Ken says. 

For Dr. Elliott, that’s exactly the outcome she envisioned for Ken. “I’m so happy to be able to help him do the things he wants to do,” she says. “Our goal is to help people live their best lives. I went into this field to help patients reduce their pain to a point where they can tolerate it and do the activities they love.”

For more information about Saint Luke’s Pain Management Clinic, visit our website to learn about pain management options.