Never Make a Health Decision Out of Fear
On being handed a frightening scan result and a same-week surgical date, and how to think clearly at that moment.
Your journey
Non-surgical treatment for back, nerve and disc pain in Marietta
You were told the remaining options are medication, injections or an operation. Before you accept that, it is worth finding out whether you are a candidate for something else — and being told plainly if you are not.
50+ YearsCombined Experience
10,000+Patients Helped
Certified100 Year Lifestyle Practice
Drug-FreeSolutions
Same-DayAppointments
The problem
You were handed a short list in ten minutes
You were handed a short list: take something, have an injection, or have an operation. The list is not wrong — it is incomplete, and it was delivered in ten minutes. Here is the longer version, including who should have the surgery.
Your challenges
What brought you here?
Tap the ones that sound like you and the rest of this page narrows to match. Choose none and you will see everything we treat.
Our solutions
What a real non-surgical attempt involves
Screening first to find out whether you are a candidate at all, then a defined program with a re-test date — not open-ended treatment.
When surgery is the right answer, and we will say so
There are findings that mean you should be in front of a surgeon rather than in our care, and you deserve them stated plainly: progressive weakness in a leg or foot, a foot that drags or slaps, loss of bowel or bladder control, numbness in the saddle area, or unrelenting pain that is escalating while you rest. Those need prompt assessment and imaging, not a course of conservative care. If you present with them, we refer you, and we do it the same day.
Severe, genuinely structural stenosis with a badly restricted walking distance is also a case where surgery sometimes wins outright, and we would rather help you get a proper surgical opinion than spend three months proving the point.
Recognize yourself
Sound familiar?
These are the problems people are usually carrying when they have been told surgery is next — and the ones most worth screening properly before you agree to anything.
What your scan says, and what it does not
By your late sixties, a scan of your spine will almost certainly show disc degeneration, some narrowing and some arthritic change. That is nearly universal, and it is the single most misread piece of information in this whole process. Imaging findings correlate far more weakly with pain than most people assume — plenty of people with alarming scans have no symptoms at all, and plenty with mild scans are in real trouble. So a scan on its own cannot tell you whether an operation will help you.
What matters more is the pattern: which movements and positions bring the symptoms on, how far you can walk before your legs start complaining, whether the problem is worse standing or sitting, and whether it follows a specific nerve. That pattern is what an examination is for, and it is what decides whether non-surgical care is a reasonable bet in your case.
Candidacy
Find out if you are a candidate before you book
Nine questions on your symptom pattern, imaging and history. It will tell you if decompression is a reasonable bet in your case, and it will tell you just as plainly when it is not.
Candidacy first, because most of the honesty lives here
Non-surgical spinal decompression works well for a contained disc problem with a clear mechanical pattern. It works poorly for advanced degeneration, for segmental instability, and for symptoms that point to nerve compromise needing imaging first. Roughly one in three people who come in asking for decompression by name need something else, or need to be referred. This is a screening question, not a sales question, and we treat it that way.
Neuropathy has the same problem in a different form. If the nerve damage is being driven by diabetes, chemotherapy or a medication you are still taking, that has to be part of the plan or the results will not hold — and if the fibers are too far gone, no amount of therapy will bring them back. What can often be improved is pain, balance and the function of what remains. That is a real goal. It is not the same as reversal, and anyone promising reversal is overselling.
What happens next
What the first ninety days look like
What it costs, and how payment works
We do not accept insurance in our office, and that includes Medicare. We would rather say that plainly on a web page than have you find out at the front desk. The upside is real: your plan is set by what the examination finds and by what you are trying to get back to, not by what a plan will authorize this quarter, and there is no surprise balance bill arriving six weeks later. We are happy to provide an itemised receipt for you to submit to your insurer yourself.
We are a member of ChiroHealthUSA, a discount network that makes it legal for us to offer a reduced cash rate to an individual or a family who joins. It is not insurance and it does not reimburse anything — it is simply what allows the lower rate to be offered consistently and lawfully. Enrolment takes a few minutes and we will sign you up in the office if you want to.
We accept HSA and FSA cards and flexible payment plans, so the cost can be spread out or paid with money you have already set aside pre-tax.
Either way you are entitled to the numbers before you commit: the total, the number of visits, what happens if you stop early, and when you get re-tested. You get those in writing at the examination, and we would rather you take the page home and talk it over than decide in the room. Nothing here requires a same-day answer.
- Before you come in
A phone conversation about cost and coverage
So you are not sitting in an office finding out what is not covered. You can ask what a program runs, what Medicare will and will not pay, and whether your situation sounds like one we can help — before you spend anything.
- Visit one
Examination, candidacy screening and a straight answer
History, orthopedic and neurological testing, and measurement of walking distance and standing tolerance. Imaging reviewed or ordered if the examination calls for it. You leave knowing whether you are a candidate, what the program is, what it costs, and what the re-test date is — in writing, to take home and discuss with your family.
- Weeks one to four
Reduce the pain and stabilize the nerve
The early aim is getting symptoms down far enough that you can move and sleep, because nothing else works well until that happens. Sessions are frequent in this phase. You are given what you may and may not do this week, specifically.
- Weeks four to ten
Rebuild walking distance, strength and balance
This is the part that decides whether the result lasts, and it is the part people skip. Loading the tissue you have just calmed down, plus balance work if fall risk is part of your picture. Visits usually reduce in frequency here.
- The re-test
Your own numbers, compared honestly
Same measures as visit one — walking distance, standing tolerance, sensation, medication use. Better means we taper you off care rather than continue it. Not better means the plan changes or you get referred for a surgical opinion, and we say which.
Technology we use for this
Technology that guides your care
Class IV Robotic MLS Laser Therapy
Two wavelengths, and enough power to reach a hip.
High-Energy Inductive Therapy (HEIT)
Deep magnetic field where hands cannot reach.
Cold Laser / Low-Level Laser Therapy
Light the tissue absorbs, at low power.
DRX9000 Spinal Decompression Table
Cyclic traction at a controlled angle and load.
Digital X-Ray & Spinal Imaging
Used when the examination calls for it, not by default.
Electrical Muscle Stimulation & Interferential Current
Interrupting a pain signal and a muscle spasm.
Flexion-Distraction (Cox) Table
The hands-on alternative to a decompression table.
Pulsed Electromagnetic Field (PEMF) Therapy
A pulsed field, and cells that respond to it.
Video
Our doctors on camera
Spinal Degeneration Is Not Aging
Using real patient X-rays, why two people the same age can have very different spines — and why alignment matters alongside age.
Written by our clinicians
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One of a national network of certified providers
Plasker Chiropractic is a certified 100 Year Lifestyle provider — useful if you travel, and the reason our standards are not ours alone. Care you begin here can be continued by a provider trained the same way.
Find a provider on the100yearlifestyle.com →The 100 Year Lifestyle is a registered trademark and service mark in the United States and Canada. Plasker Chiropractic is a certified provider.
Unedited Google reviews
From patients who were also told surgery was next
Measured, in the terms that actually matter to you
Not "how is the pain out of ten" alone, because that moves around for all sorts of reasons. How far you can walk before you have to stop. How long you can stand at the kitchen counter. Whether you can feel the floor well enough to trust yourself on the stairs at night. Whether you have needed the medication this week. Those are the measures we take at the start and re-check at a fixed point.
If they are not moving by the point they should be, you are told, and the plan changes or you are referred. That is the commitment, and it is why the plan has a date on it rather than running until you stop turning up.
For friends who suffer from neck pain, back pain, or any nerve-related issues, I strongly recommend Plasker Chiropractic. Last week, I had severe neck pain, and my left arm was numb with a dull ache. It was really bothering me—I couldn’t do anything except feel the pain. I couldn’t sleep at night ei…
I started seeing Dr. Plasker several years ago when I was at the end of my rope with a back injury that my Orthopedic suggested I needed surgery. I began getting adjusted and within a couple of weeks felt tremendously better and back to normal activity in a couple of months. I have since taken the…
I am a long time patient of doctors Plasker. I’m also fairly active and as I have advanced in years, I inevitably felt my activities when trying to get out of bed the next day. When they introduced the decompression alternative, I was hopeful that this would help rejuvenate my compressed L5 disc. I…
Questions patients ask
The questions people ask when surgery has been raised
Can you tell me whether I actually need the surgery?
We can tell you whether there are findings that mean you should see a surgeon promptly, and whether your presentation is one that commonly responds to non-surgical care. What we cannot do is overrule a surgeon on your behalf, and we will not pretend to. If the examination suggests you need an operation, you will be told that clearly — and if it suggests a non-surgical attempt is reasonable first, you will be told what that involves and how long it gets before we re-assess.
Do you take my insurance?
No. We do not accept insurance in our office, including Medicare. We will give you an itemised receipt so you can submit it to your insurer yourself. We are also a ChiroHealthUSA member, which lets us offer a discounted cash rate to members — we can enroll you in the office. HSA and FSA cards are welcome and payment plans are available. You will have the full cost in writing before you commit to anything.
Am I too old for this?
Age by itself is not what rules people out — bone quality, instability, certain medications and the severity of nerve involvement are what matter, and those are checked at the examination. Techniques are adjusted for older spines, including instrument-assisted and low-force methods rather than manual thrusting where that is the safer choice. If your bone density or a specific finding makes a technique inappropriate, we use a different one or tell you this is not the right care for you.
Can neuropathy actually be reversed?
Sometimes symptoms improve substantially; reversal is the wrong word and we avoid it. If the underlying cause is still active — uncontrolled blood sugar, a medication, an ongoing condition — that has to be addressed alongside anything we do or the gains will not hold. Where nerve fibers have already been lost, they do not grow back on demand. What frequently does improve is pain, sensation, balance and confidence walking, and those are worth having. Any clinic guaranteeing reversal is overselling.
How long is the program and what if it is not working?
Most programs run somewhere between eight and twelve weeks with a re-test built in, and you are told the number of visits before you start. If your measurements have not moved by the re-test, the plan changes or you are referred on. We would rather tell you that at week eight than keep booking you into month five.
I had back surgery already and I still hurt. Is it too late?
No, though the goals are different and worth being realistic about. Post-surgical spines often have restriction above and below the fused or operated level, and that is frequently where the remaining pain is coming from. Decompression is usually inappropriate over hardware or a fusion, so the approach relies on other methods. What is realistic is improving the movement and load tolerance of the segments around it. What is not realistic is undoing the operation.
Will you pressure me into signing up on the first visit?
No. You get the findings, the plan, the cost and the re-test date on paper, and you are encouraged to take it home and talk it over with your spouse or your family. If you feel pressured at any point in this practice, that is a failure on our part and worth saying so.
Get a second answer before you agree to surgery
An examination in Marietta that ends with honest candidacy screening, the costs in writing, and a plan with a re-test date — or a referral, if that is what you actually need.