Patient Story: Patient Gets Fitness Career Back in Shape Thanks to Dr. Roth
Robin Bray is the owner of FitnessBarre™, a popular local workout studio in Midland Park, New Jersey. The ballet-inspired toning instruction has an engaged online community affectionately called “Robin’s Nest.”
After almost 25 years of helping thousands of people get in shape mentally and physically—and become more mobile—excruciating back pain threatened to end the hands-on career that Robin loved. What began as intermittent nerve pain in her thighs escalated into debilitating agony. Before long, simple tasks like getting in and out of her car were nearly impossible for Robin.
Her active lifestyle came to a grinding halt. “My clientele watched me go from this very high-performing fitness leader to someone who was sitting in a chair, teaching the class with a microphone on,” Robin explained.
The turning point came when two of her students independently recommended Dr. Patrick Roth at New Jersey Brain and Spine. “Once I went, I felt so confident,” she said, describing the experience of meeting Dr. Roth, getting an MRI, and being able to review the results with him quickly. The MRI revealed two conditions. Robin was diagnosed with spinal stenosis, a narrowing of the canal through which the spinal cord and spinal nerve roots travel through the spine column. The MRI also showed an unstable vertebral body slip (spondylolisthesis), a serious condition when one of the vertebrae slips out of alignment and presses on the vertebra below it.
Dr. Roth’s approach combined expertise with compassion, and he suggested that Robin try to manage her pain without surgery. But after three epidural injections provided no relief, he carefully prepared Robin for the procedure she would need: Minimally Invasive Spine Surgery (MISS). The approach uses small incisions and special instruments to access the spine, and preserves muscle to reduce bleeding and ease recovery.
But minimally invasive spine surgery isn’t pain-free, and Dr. Roth was honest that recovery isn’t always easy for the procedure. That was difficult news for Robin. “Preparing for that was really emotional for me, because I’ve never been cut open and had a significant surgery like that in my life,” she said.
But the experience and the result exceeded her expectations. That very night after surgery, Robin walked to the restroom without hurting—something she hadn’t experienced in months.
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“Here I was before the surgery, barely able to walk…within 24 hours of having the surgery, I could get up and walk,” she said. The next day, she passed her physical therapy evaluation and was discharged home shortly after, a day earlier than expected.
The best news? “To be honest with you, I am 100% of what I was before,” Robin says. She is teaching in a new studio that she opened in spring 2025, doing what she loves without limitations. The pain that once threatened to end her career is now gone, thanks to Dr. Roth’s skilled intervention at New Jersey Brain and Spine.
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