My Appreciation for my Doctor and Friend Dr. Ramon Solis

My story begins in 1999. My wife and I were celebrating early that year and happened to be at a hotel for the weekend away from our two young children for the first time in some time. I began to feel an overwhelming pain in my back and asked my wife if she had some Tylenol. She did and I took two pills and tried to watch television. However, little did I know that twenty long, arduous and horribly painful years later, I would be writing this story. You have to understand I thought I would never awaken again opening my eyes each morning to the most horrific pain a human being can withstand barely! In the early 2000’s I tried several pain management specialists who performed everything from radio frequency to manipulation under anesthesia to a laminectomy in 2013. I underwent a course of treatment that not many people could hold on. Luckily, I had a loving wife and family who were most understanding when I would break away from a family function or party just to lie down and get my mind off the overwhelming pain. For those of you thinking that it’s all in his head, I spent countless hours with psychologists, psychiatrists, and they tried most things known to modern science to get my back muscles to refrain from spasm 24/7 every hour of every day. I tried exercises with the best back specialists in the industry. None could provide me with relief for more than a few days and even 11 to 12 shots of cortisone would last 48 hours if I was lucky. I had to work this entire time and try to live the best life possible. But I was not living any life! I met Dr. Solis some time in the mid-2000’s prior to his practice becoming an MDVIP practice. I was impressed with Ramon because he always showed the same upbeat passion and positive attitude that a person like me needed. He was honest and said “Rick, I am no back specialist but I will continue to work with you and treat you to the best of my ability and he did just that! He was always researching and trying to find ways for the myofascial spasms to stop and allow me to breathe properly without wrenching in pain 24/7. I will get to the reason I am writing this story, not because I never gave up (because I came close a few times), but because he never gave up on me and that’s why I consider him a great friend to this very day. Dr. Solis saw me at my very worst and at what could be termed my best (which would be a pain level of 7 out of 10) on most pain level indicators. But he never gave up because he knew I wanted my life back and I did not want medications to hide the pain anymore. He finally wound up sending me to a specialist who he was close to and admired and lo and behold, after twenty long years, more than 100 procedures, hundreds of therapies, I am a new man at the young age of nearly 60. I am back in the gym working out with my son who is now 25 and we are both running on the treadmill and eating right. I have lost well over twenty pounds and the main point is that Dr. Ramon Solis deserves recognition for his dedication to his craft! He care and has a wonderful bedside manner! It’s time the world knows that this doctor who has become a friend over the years never quit on me, nor I on him and today looks so much different each and every day. Don’t get me wrong, I am still having some spasm each day, but it’s manageable and I can live a decent life without lying in bed staring at the ceiling writhing in severe pain praying for a miracle! I will not bring religion into my story, I will leave that for another audience. I am thinking about writing a book and naming it “The Invisible soldiers” because I felt like I was in the fight of my life but I had to put on that brave face during so many social functions and events, I do not care to remember. Now at nearly 60 years of age, I clearly have a new lease on life! I owe Dr. Solis more than the hug I gave him after receiving the treatments from a doctor friend of his that performed six procedures on my back which gave me my life back! I am so grateful for Dr. Solis and his entire team for putting up with what I can only imagine was a human being in a bearskin! Thank you from the bottom of my heart Dr. Solis! Now I understand why we have these incredible human beings practicing the most difficult of treatments on patients who sometimes get lost, but also found! I will end my story by saying that I am so thankful for Dr. Solis and his caring each and every day. I would get a text from him with some new treatment that had just hit the market. They couldn’t help me, but he never gave up so neither did I! Please those few or several invisible soldiers living your lives in chronic pain, just know that you are not forgotten and you will find your own Ramon Solis one day! This is what MDVIP did for me and I am forever grateful and humbled! What a treasure we have in Katy, Texas! And he practices what he preaches always working out and trying to be a little better each and every day!