By Connie Beard

Sometimes, things just fall in place, but not always when back pain is an issue.

But for Paris resident Glenn Bugher things went well with a fairly new surgery technique known as X-SPOT, performed recently by neurological surgeon Dr. Joseph Preston at Paris Regional Medical Center.

The X-Spot procedure places a device between the spinous processes of the vertebrae in the lower back. The device holds the vertebrae a set distance, which keeps it from pinching nerves.

Because he wanted the procedure performed locally, Bugher said referring physician Dr. Richard Bercher and Preston, along with PRMC, accommodated his wishes although special equipment had to be purchased and staff trained.

It took four months for the doctors to get the equipment installed at PRMC, make sure insurance would cover the procedure and train the staff at the hospital, Bugher said.

The patient talked with a reporter this week about the surgery, about two weeks afterwards and with staples still in place.

“I got there at 7 a.m. and left at 4 that night,” he said. Bugher was in surgery for a little over an hour, but the actual procedure took about 15 minutes.

“When I woke up there was no pain,” he said. “The pain is gone. I guess the pain I had been living with 24/7 was so much greater that I didn’t even notice the little ol' surgery pain,” Bugher said.

Three years ago, Bugher and his wife, Barbara Bugher, lived in Torrington, Wyo., 85 miles northeast of Cheyenne on the Nebraska border.

On an icy day, as Bugher got out of his pickup he slipped on the sand spread over ice. Bugher said his back hit the running board when he went down.

Bugher said he visited several doctors, even those in Cheyenne, but none could find the cause of the pain.

Meanwhile, he survived three heart attacks. Following advice from his heart doctors, he sold his property and looked for a place closer to a large hospital.

He and his wife checked out places in Oklahoma City, Louisiana, Arkansas and Missouri. There were two houses in Paris that caught their eye, and they decided they liked the town.

Bugher said he gets along with with heart specialist Dr. Arjumand Hashmi, a well-known physician at PRMC.

The pain in Bugher’s back got worse, so much so, he wasn’t able to walk around outside for fear of not being able to return to the house, and the couple feared he would soon be in a wheelchair.

That’s when the patient visited Bercher, who conducted extensive testing.

“He looked at my veins and arteries from my neck to my feet,” Bugher said. “And he looked at my nerves from my neck to my feet.”

An MRI finally revealed a cracked vertebrae that had healed crooked, which pinched the sciatic nerve, causing pain and numbness in his legs.

Bercher referred Bugher to Preston, who told him of two types of surgery he could perform. One a traditional surgery that places rods in the back to hold the spine straight and the other, X-SPOT.

Bugher said he decided he wanted to have the X-Spot surgery, and wanted it done in Paris.