I spent 8 years never given a clear reason for my pain by the doctors I saw. I was given steroid injections, exercise recommendations: none of it really worked.
By the end of the 8 years, I was at the end of my rope. The piriformis syndrome (back then I still wasn't sure that that was what it was) was worsening to the point that I had increasing difficulty walking, with lots of restriction/cramping feelings. I had significant butt pain with radiating nerve pain down to my feet. I couldn't sit for much time, so I couldn't drive much or take long airplane rides.
I was grasping at straws, and since I saw the glowing reviews of Dr. Tollestrup online, I decided to take a chance.
It is very easy to contact his team, I would recommend sending them an email, they are very quick to get back to you. They quickly set up an appt very soon for me, after I wrote them a detailed description of my symptoms.
The appt occurred near Las Vegas, in a quiet clinic.
One amazing thing is, it feels that Dr. Tollestrup already read up on my essay about my symptoms before he even entered the room. He knew me, understood me even before meeting me.
He sat down and started to help me isolate my symptoms. Now Dr. Tollestrup is I would say, a tinkerer, a nerd. He is very detail oriented, and he will politely interrupt you multiple times in your interview to clarify certain details. He isn't the type of guy who is overly confident of what is going on; no, he is gonna dig in the weeds to really try to understand what disease is possibly happening.
Dr. Tollestrup is like Sherlock Holmes, he just peppers you with tons and tons of clarifying questions so he can be absolutely sure he understands what is going on; I think he took at least 30 minutes just asking me questions.
He is warm, easy to talk to; you feel professional strength from him.
Once the interview is done, then you get on the patient bed, where Dr. Tollestrup starts a series of physical exam techniques: for me, he was telling me to pull my leg in all sorts of directions while he push and pull and prod at them. He applied pressure to multiple different parts of my buttocks, trying to isolate where exactly was my pain. Dr. Tollestrup clearly believes strongly that the physical exam is essential to the diagnosis.
After all that careful, multiple maneuvers, I sat back down with him, and he explained the next procedures for me to do to further clarify my diagnosis, including additional MRI and a testing injection.
These extra steps really show that Dr. Tollestrup isn't excessively eager to jump to surgery; he wants to know as much data as possible to truly decide, "yes, this guy does have this, and this surgery is more than likely to help him".
His team was eager to help guide me through each of the above additional steps; when I accidentally ordered the wrong MRI, the team quickly told me which was the right one before I actually went through with it. The testing injection actually occurred in a nearby clinic to Dr. Tollestrup on the same day, so I was able to get that done quickly.
Once Dr. Tollestrup reviewed all the above data, his team helped set up a surgery date for me. It happened much sooner than I thought it would, within the same month.
On day of surgery, which occurs at a surgical center in Las Vegas, all the nurses and doctors were very nice; it was all very smooth.
After the surgery, Dr. Tollestrup contacted me through text and email to make sure everything was going on well with my recovery. I was nervous about some symptoms after the surgery, and he carefully read through my rambling and gave me great advice.
So where am I now? I am crying now cuz I can walk without significant pain now, I can sit down without significant pain. Dr. Tollestrup is basically the most important doctor I ever met, and the most person I have met outside of my immediate family. Because he gave me back my life.
I know what you are thinking. "Maybe he can't actually help me, no other doctors did" "I can't afford Dr. Tollestrup's fees".
Those thoughts are valid. But what you are paying for is someone who I can describe as being obsessed with tiny details and constant self improvement, with him focused on giving the best results for patients who really actually need the prescribed treatment.
And these surgeries are a big deal: go for the best, the person with tons of experience.
The recovery process was fairly easy, I was walking pretty much the moment I got out of the surgical center: it is a testament to Dr. Tollestrup's skills that something as drastic as removing an entire butt muscle still didn't affect my ability to walk immediately after the surgery.
I had my piriformis muscles completely removed on both legs, and I feel zero, absolutely zero changes in my legs/toes range of movement: the only difference is, my legs got way way stronger, now that the piriformis is no longer pressing down on my leg nerves. read more