Deborah Sanders*

Deborah's story As the patient was having a seizure, Deborah, the X-ray technician, tried to catch him. In the process, she was knocked onto his wheelchair and ruptured a disk in her spine. Later, she was told that she would not be able to continue her career. As she heard the news, Deborah recalls that it “really socked me in my stomach.”

At the time of the accident, she was a newlywed which should have been a happy time in her life. Because of the pain, however, she had become miserable and severely depressed, and would often make a lot of excuses for why she couldn’t go out. Looking back, she is so thankful for the support of her husband during that time. As Deborah says, “It was really a tough time for me.”

Deborah became willing to try anything because she was hurting so badly. “I always felt like something was stinging or burning me,” she recalls. “It was a chore just to walk. I couldn’t ride for any period of time. It felt like someone was carving a knife into me.”

She tried medications, physical therapy, patches, and back surgeries—12 of them. Nothing really worked. Over the course of her search, Deborah went to six different doctors. In 1994, she was told about neurostimulation from her pain management physician and was implanted with her first spinal cord stimulation (SCS) system. Although it helped, it never handled the pain in her lower back.

Now, all of that is in the past for Deborah. She decided to try the SJM Eon^® Neurostimulation System with a lead that SJM had developed specifically for low back pain. After the surgery, she remembers, “I felt my little toes for the first time in years, and I started crying. It was the most wonderful sensation I’d ever felt.”

Today, Deborah feels happier and wants to do more. She says, “People who know me can tell by the look in my eyes that I feel better.” She recounts the benefits like this: “I can be more active with my kids, and I have a better outlook on life. It’s helped me as a mother, a wife, and a friend. It’s given me back a part of my life I thought I’d never get back again.”

If you are considering spinal cord stimulation and would like to correspond with Deborah, email her at deborah.sanders@ans-medical.com.

*The above testimonial is the experience of this individual only. It is an individual result and we do not claim that it is representative of the experience that all or most patients achieve and is not indicative of future performance or success. Our patient ambassadors only have experience with St. Jude Medical neurostimulation products; therefore, they are unable to speak to or answer questions about other products or therapies.

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