Gail’s Story

I’m a 75 year old retired nurse who is quite fussy about the physicians who care for me. I was able to avoid any surgery until I was 66 years old, and I had the ability to ask my nursing friends what surgeons were good and bad, so my experiences and outcomes were very positive. However, when I moved to New Hampshire, I was no longer able to get the “inside scoop” on which physicians were “good.” Good is a relative term, so my meaning of the word, when it comes to my medical and surgical care, is that the outcome, whether it be medical or surgical, has left me better off than before I got sick. The pluses are that the individual caring for me is professional, kind, has a sense of humor, has a professional attentive staff . . . and most importantly that I TRUST the physician.
When I met Dr. Wilkening, I was in EXTREME pain, he offered other alternatives besides surgery, but I chose to have the surgery.
There aren’t enough words I can put into a perfect description of how I feel about this man and how grateful I am to him for making me perfect again – and yes, I am back to normal. I had a laminectomy and an L4-L5 PLIF with intervertebral disc placement, held together with hardware. I was very scared pre-operatively, but he put me at ease . . . and, I TOTALLY TRUSTED him in the care he provided . As a FUSSY nurse, I highly recommend Dr. Wilkening to anyone who needs to have orthopedic surgery.