Angeline Leeper spends most of her spare time outdoors and keeping up with her beautiful garden. Over time she noticed that her lower back began to hurt. The pain became so intolerable that every step she took became excruciating. She had great difficulty sleeping at night and could not enjoy the outdoors she loved.

She first saw Dr. Charles Harvey in 1992. Her treatment began with a series of injections and physical therapy. While these provided a decrease in the severity of her symptoms, she decided to have an open diskectomy in search of complete relief in August of 2000. Immediately after surgery she found significant relief from her discomfort and began to race walk again. The shorter strides strengthened her back for a total body workout.

Unfortunately, 6 years later, her back pain returned, although this time in a different location. Upon discussing her options with Dr. Harvey and researching new procedures, she decided to have a minimally invasive diskectomy. Angeline couldn’t think of any other surgeon she could trust to perform the procedure other than Dr. Harvey. She could travel to a larger city for the procedure, but she believes “bigger isn’t always better”.

Minimally invasive diskectomys have a smaller incision and there is no muscle removed, only separated. “I noticed a significant difference between the minimally invasive surgery and the open surgery. I had a much quicker recovery.”

Within two weeks of her surgery she was race walking again. One month after her surgery she competed in the Hollidaysburg YMCA Turkey Trot race walk. She walks a total of 25 hours monthly.