The Power to Power Through: A Linn County woman found the right spine treatment at Anderson County Hospital and Saint Luke’s

“Just power through.” 

Jeannie Kautt, 66, has toughed her way through life with that mentality. That was true during her days playing high school sports, when she started having back issues. By her 30s, an MRI revealed she had degenerative disc disease. 

“My doctor said my back looked like that of an 80-year-old farmer,” Jeannie recalled. “I thought, ‘Aren’t I too young to be like this?’”

With pain radiating down her lower back and right leg, she powered through with naproxen and physical therapy. 

Jeannie started going to a pain clinic in her 40s and 50s, where she found relief with the help of periodic steroid injections and nerve ablation procedures.

By 2024, the treatments stopped working and Jeannie endured 24/7 pain. Luckily, she had connections to the care she needed.

Mind over body

Jeannie, a former executive assistant for Anderson County Hospital, was surrounded by leading medical professionals. Among them was Adam Madl, DO, at Anderson County Hospital Specialty Clinic.

Dr. Madl suggested performing a moving X-ray—an imaging technique that captures anatomical movements in real time. 

With an inside look at Jeannie’s spine, Dr. Madl saw movement in her L4 and L5 vertebrae. She had a condition called spondylolisthesis, which means two bones were slipping away from one another. The nerves between those bones are squeezed during weight-bearing activities, which caused shooting pains in her legs. At it’s worst, this condition can lead to weakened leg muscles with bowel and bladder problems. 

Since the injections were no longer effective, Dr. Madl said surgery was the only option if she wanted to live pain free. Jeannie, admittedly, was afraid of putting her life on pause.

But she did some soul searching and spoke to her family. One day on her Linn County farm, Jeannie realized mowing her five-acre lawn took four days now. She used to mow it in one. She looked to her husband.

“When does the mind connect with the body?” she asked him. “My body’s supposed to know I can’t do this anymore, but my mind still says I can.”

“That's the problem,” he told her. “It never does. You have to retrain yourself to do things slower.”

Stop if it hurts

Jeannie was still young enough to look forward to a pain-free quality of life, so she agreed to meet Gurpreet Gandhoke, MD, neurosurgeon at Saint Luke’s Marion Bloch Neuroscience Institute in Kansas City.

The two-hour drive to the city was worth it—Jeannie appreciated Dr. Gandhoke’s candor and kindness. She knew she was in good hands, and Dr. Gandhoke could tell she would do well.

“Jeannie is a very positive individual, and positive individuals usually do better with these procedures,” Dr. Gandhoke said. “She's also a determined individual. She will always do what needs to be done to take care of herself.”

On Oct. 30, 2024, Dr. Gandhoke and his team performed an L4–L5 transforaminal lumbar interbody fusion. In this procedure, Dr. Gandhoke and his team removed the damaged disc, replaced it with a bone-filled cage, and secured the area with titanium rods and screws.

Jeannie woke from surgery and immediately knew the pain was gone.

“I knew all those years I was masking the pain,” she said, “but I didn't really know how much.” 

While her surgery took place in Kansas City, Jeannie was able to spend eight weeks in physical therapy, before and after surgery, close to home at Anderson County Hospital. Thankful for the convenience, Jeannie credits the therapy sessions for helping her rebound from the procedure and regain her strength. She also was able to stay close to her family, who supported her the entire way.

For decades, Jeannie had to maintain the brush and tree limbs, burn prairies, and perform hay operations on 300 acres in immense pain. Even simple chores shouldn’t be something anyone has to “power through.” So her doctors gave her one rule: If it hurts, stop.

“I'm trying to retrain my brain to say that's enough,” Jeannie said. “I’ve been given this gift to do the things I love again, and I don’t want to injure it further.”

Since her procedure, Jeannie has become an advocate for those suffering from chronic pain. Her advice: Find someone who will listen and provide answers to your issues. Because the power to find a solution for the pain is stronger than powering through.

If you are having spine-related issues from past surgeries or chronic conditions, contact Saint Luke’s Marion Bloch Neuroscience Institute for the latest surgical options from minimally invasive spine surgery to motion-sparing surgical interventions.