(Ivanhoe Newswire) — Pain from the neck to the lower part of the back can all be caused by a herniated disc.

If left untreated, the pain can become debilitating and lead to severe nerve damage.

But now, a new procedure is helping to get people up and moving pain-free once again.

News 8’s Brittany Noble has details in Tuesday’s Health Spotlight.

Just opening a cupboard was almost impossible for Kellie Weathers a few years ago. “I was just having like, really, really bad headaches. I had a lot of tingling in my fingers down my arm.”

Weathers thought it was her shoulder, but said, “When I took a MRI, they found out it was actually my neck.”

As a receptionist, the toll of sitting at a desk 10 hours a day for 13 years caught up with her.

Weathers had two herniated discs by the time she saw Mercy Medical Center neurosurgeon Charles Park. The doctor recalled, “She came and says, ‘You know, I cannot work anymore. The pain is really debilitating.’”

The outer portion of Weathers’ discs ruptured, and some of the softer material inside squeezed out and was hitting her nerves. Physical therapy, anti-inflammatory medications, muscle relaxers and steroid shots didn’t take away her pain.

Park used an anterior cervical discectomy and fusion, or ACDF, to help. “‘Anterior’ means from the front, right? ‘Anterior.’ ‘Cervical’ means in the neck. ‘Discectomy’ means are actually removing all the disc away from the nerve. And the ‘fusion’ means they’re actually fusing the bone above and below the disc.”

Because the doctor went in from the front, no muscles were cut, and he says recovery is 50% faster than traditional fusion.

Weathers went home from surgery the next day and was back to work in four weeks. Park said, “This is actually one of the best surgeries that we do. It’s like more than 95% successful, right?”

Weathers said, “I’m great now. I can move it, I can lift my arm, and there’s no tingling. I can do, it’s like a hundred percent better.”

People ages 30-50 are most likely to get a herniated disc, and it affects men twice as often as women.

A few risk factors include sitting for long periods of time, being overweight, lifting heavy objects, and repetitive bending or twisting for work or sports and smoking.

Contributors to this news report include: Marsha Lewis, producer; Matt Goldschmidt, videographer; Roque Correa, editor.

This story was created from a script aired on WISH-TV. Health Spotlight is presented by Community Health Network.