Scott's Back Injury Story

“Before I got hurt, I had 53 thousand acres and 25 hundred head of cows. I was a full-time cowboy. I had been my entire life. We would drive our cows 70 miles from our home ranch to the high country in summer in the Sierra National Forest.

In 2007, I was rear-ended by a semi-truck. I was asleep in the passenger’s seat and it herniated some disk and ruptured a couple. And so, I went to my chiropractor because of the leg pain and he instantly sent me to Dr. Bybee. And he was so good to try any and every combination. I mean, they did everything in the world to try and make me comfortable and he helped me through the whole procedure. I am now on disability because of my injuries and he helped me through all the stuff that I just had no idea where to go— I was just lost. I couldn’t stand up, I couldn’t lay down, I couldn’t sit, I couldn’t sleep. I was in so much pain and not being able to have any pain medicine. It was just horrible.

Doc went in and repaired I think two discs at two different times, to take the pain off my legs, but in that saw that I had a lot of severe damage and I was almost bone-to-bone in four joints from my tailbone, up. And showed me a bunch of different things that we could do. So, through Doctors Medical Center, Dr. Bybee and everybody, we got that done and he went in through my stomach and put in three artificial disks and fused my tailbone.

You know, the thing of it with him that I really liked is that he makes eye contact. ‘It is what it is. We can do this. I won’t guarantee you that it’s going to stop all the pain— I can’t guarantee you that. But I will guarantee you that you will be in better shape when you’re coming out of there than you were going in. You’ll be able to get back on your feet. Because I can’t say that I’m going to be able to take away all the pain, because we don’t know.’

I go there because they take care of me. I mean, I’ve been up here in the mountains, the specialists just aren’t around up here. They’ll send you someplace else, so I just go down to Doctors Medical Center and I’m very fortunate.

I’ve got a couple High School kids that are coming over and learning to rope and we do a lot of rope and trying to get them ready for High School rodeo. Or I go over and help my friends in Jamestown, they have some cows and he’s a saddle-maker.

And I have my five-year-old grandson that we do a lot of stuff together. He’s my boy. Thank you, Dr. Bybee and Doctors Medical Center, I mean, I think the world of him because he gave me another opportunity in life. You know, I wouldn’t be here, if it wasn’t for him.”