Sandra Divina Ranger Borbon Spinal Surgery

Hello/Hola,

I’m 18 years old and was recently diagnosed with Degenerative Disk Disease (DDD) which usually presents itself later in life. (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK448134/). At 14 I felt pain in the same area and got prompt relief from acupuncture and a change in diet. This time, my initial reaction was that the associated pain would disappear after I finished my first semester pre-med finals at Arizona State University’s Barrett Honor College and worked full time on my feet at the Road House Theater (Sorry Chipotle!) during the winter break. Wrong. The pain intensified to a static 8 and my mobility decreased from a normal, healthy college student to a cane, crutches and now a wheelchair.

While questioning why this disease, common in older adults, chose me, I saw the chance to become my first patient and started putting together a plan of action.

First, I set up an appointment with my primary care physician who was surprised to see my condition and prescribed pain medication and physical therapy and provided a referral to a specialist. At the same time, I underwent full blood and imaging studies to get to the root cause. The combination of the medicine and pain at the beginning of the Spring semester immediately put me behind in classwork.

After a week of intensifying pain, I requested and received another referral to a spine clinic. Again, the doctor commented on my youth, prescribed additional medication and recommended an epidural to ease the nerve irritation. I looked forward to the relief but for weeks the specialist’s office put me off, downplayed my discomfort and, worse, kept delaying the epidural.

Rapidly falling behind in school with no clear path from the doctors, I contacted my teachers and administrators to advise them of my condition and my intention to continue the course load in order to satisfy the conditions of my scholarship. Within ASU, I received the ongoing support of its Disability Office and was amazed at the mission to focus on substance not form and to allow all students to pursue their academic goals on parity with the student body. Thumbs up ASU Student Accessibility and Inclusive Learning Services!

I was exposed to a whole different side of the medical system. My passion for medicine comes from my late abuelo, Dr. Jose Jesus Borbon. Abuelo graduated from México’s UNAM, led the Hospital La Raza in México City and the Naval Hospital in Guaymas, Sonora. When we lived in México City, I would fly with my sister to spend a week in his rancho and watch him care for the people in La Atravesada, Sonora; a farming community where he was born and returned to open his consultorio.

Keeping my abuelo’s noble approach strengthened me while redlining on the pain index and being told that my condition was chronic, lifelong and manageable but untreatable.

Pain is bad but being ignored is worse. I needed fresh eyes on this DDD. Luckily, through my mother, I met a pain doctor who himself found relief after three failed spinal surgeries. He referred me to his doctor who I met last Wednesday for a fourth opinion (https://www.microspinemd.com/).

He reviewed my MRI and medical reports, tested my reactions and told me that the two herniated disks are exerting such pressure on the nerves that my full mobility was at risk in the immediate term. He said that I was the second youngest patient with this condition in his career and explained the low impact nature of the surgery with high success rates and limited risks. It’s an outpatient procedure and I will be pain free immediately and with full recovery within months.

Finally a focus on a cure rather than lifelong symptom management. I could now take agency over my health.

First, my immediate family jumped in: Papa on insurance and my driver, mama on massages and advice, sister and brothers lighten my mood and my grandmother offered her guest room during my recovery period.

Next, ASU confirmed my compliance with scholarship rules and my teachers are providing distance learning opportunities. I can’t wait to be with my Advanced Spanish classmates again! Hola Amigas!!

Finally, the hard part. The surgery costs $30,000 and wasn’t in my budget or in my bank account.

I ask that you consider chipping in. While insurance may cover some or all, I can’t live with this pain until the claims are prepared, processed and approved and I have scheduled the surgery for March 3rd. One way or another I’ve got to get cured. I have too much to learn to waste time on DDD.

I promise that all of the funds will go for the surgery and will share the receipts, studies, reports, my posts and comments before, during and after online for everyone on future Dr. Sandra Divina Ranger Borbon’s team. (Redacted of course to meet confidentiality standards).

If there are excess funds, I will use them for school related expenses with full reporting transparency.

I choose to see this DDD as my guide to the navigation of my future in medicine. Paperwork duplication, low patient-doctor time, long-term medication of curable conditions, lots of wasted time and money, lack of understanding of medical costs, coverages and economics, and the lack of love in the healthcare system are things I had never known or experienced until two months ago. Not what I expected from the land of Grey's Anatomy!

I am also humbled and uncomfortable to have so much love and support from family and friends while other kids I know don’t have the same access to healthcare that I do. I often think of my abuelo treating his neighbors and the farmworkers for symbolic payments and, to bring a human focus on my technical courses, I just incorporated Ethics and Philosophy minors into my premed courses. This system needs to both care and cure.

I’m optimistic about reaching this goal, but I’m a realist. My worst case scenario is: 1) Move home so my family can take care of me, 2) Pause or quit ASU together with my scholarship and 3) Start to learn to live with chronic pain and the resulting changes to my plans. Without my support team, I would certainly be worse off. I count my blessings every day!

I’ve met a lot of great professionals on this journey and am more committed than ever to use these experiences to help others with health issues.

Please help me now so that I can help more in the future.

Thank you/Gracias,

Sandra Divina Ranger Borbon

Freshman

Barrett Honors College

College of Liberal Arts

Arizona State University

Tempe, Arizona, USA

P.s. If you have any suggestions for courses of study or practice that could benefit from my experiences, please let me know. Thanks, Sandra Divina