Ann W*

A big reason why Ann tried neurostimulation was to enjoy more time with her daughter. She and her husband adopted a little girl from Korea a few years ago and happily added the child to their household of two boys. Unfortunately, Ann’s pain condition arose at the same time, and she found herself less able to play, go to the park, or do other things with her newest family member.

Ann’s pain was an unwelcomed side effect of surgeries aimed at correcting issues in her back and hip. Although she was given powerful medications for her pain, she disliked using them because they made her listless and “spacey.” Unfortunately, she sometimes took them anyway because her other treatments, including physical therapy and an assortment of injection procedures, didn’t give her lasting relief from the pain in her back, legs, and feet.

Pain not only kept her from interacting with her family, it also bothered her at work. Unable to sit for long without pain, Ann was exhausted by working in her office, and when she got home she would often go right to bed. Outside of the job, Ann’s symptoms were a constant drain. She lacked the energy to visit friends or exercise, and when she went grocery shopping, she sometimes used a motorized shopping cart to spare her from walking around the store. “I really didn’t do anything,” she says.

That changed after she got a neurostimulator. The device relieved most of Ann’s pain and let her take much smaller doses of pain medication. Now she spends more time with her daughter and can watch her son play rugby at his university, which requires her to stand during matches. And she recently took a family vacation to Arizona, where she hiked, went to the zoo, and toured the baseball stadium used by the Arizona Diamondbacks without being sidelined by her condition.

“The impact has been tremendous,” she says of her neurostimulator experience. “It’s a great tool to get me through what I need to get through.”

If you are considering neurostimulation and would like to correspond with Ann, email her at AnnW@sjmneuro.com.