For years, Diane Pikul’s world revolved around one thing: pain.
What began in 2022 as back trouble gradually took over nearly every part of her daily life. She tried physical therapy. She sought second and third opinions. She underwent radiofrequency ablation. She even had a spinal cord stimulator implanted in 2024, hoping it would offer relief. Instead, the pain persisted.
Eventually, she found herself forced to retire from substitute teaching and spending most of her time in bed, unable to do the everyday things that once felt routine.
“I was in pain for basically three years, close to four years,” Pikul said, adding that it was affecting everything in her life from her marriage to her friendships. “I was desperate.”
That search for relief led her to Dr. Prakasam Kalluri, an orthopedic surgeon with Spine Care Specialists and chief medical officer for TriCities Hospital, part of HCA Virginia.
Dr. Kalluri said Pikul first came to him in May of 2025 after years of enduring the pain through multiple failed treatments. Imaging revealed a bulging disc, arthritis and instability in her lower back, and he recommended minimally invasive lumbar fusion.
Pikul underwent surgery in July 2025. The recovery was not instant, but little by little, the pain began to ease. About three months after surgery, she realized the treatment had truly begun to work.
“The numbness in my legs disappeared. I could walk. I could go to the mall, I could bend over. I can do most everything anybody can do. My back doesn't hold me from anything now,” she said. “My friends are just astounded. They’re like, Diane, it's a new you.”
Dr. Kalluri, who has spent two decades in the Richmond area performing minimally invasive spine surgery, said Pikul’s progress reflects what makes the procedure so effective for the right patients: less disruption to the muscles, faster recovery, and a more predictable return of function.
For Pikul, the outcome was life-changing.
She said Dr. Kalluri was unlike any doctor she had ever seen — someone who sat down, explained everything carefully, and made sure she and her husband understood the plan before surgery. She remembered him telling her to get up and walk to the bathroom immediately after surgery, an instruction she initially thought was impossible. It was the beginning of a long but successful recovery.
By her final follow-up in early June, Pikul said Dr. Kalluri told her she was finished unless she needed him again. She cried. After so many months of appointments, pain, and uncertainty, that moment felt like freedom.
Today, Pikul says she is back to living and doing the ordinary things that once seemed out of reach. She lost 23 pounds after becoming active again, and she said her husband, who had carried so much of the load during her illness, can now see the difference in her every day.
Pikul says she is thankful to Dr. Kalluri every day.
“I call him my hero. He’s like part of the family now,” she said. “He gave me my life back.”