Joe N*

When Joe woke up with pain in his arm and shoulder one morning, he thought he might have pulled a muscle. It was an opinion confirmed by the first medical professional he saw. “We all thought the pain would go away,” Joe says. “But it didn’t. It continued to intensify.”

In the months that followed, Joe avoided using his arm to let it heal, but that seemed to make the problem worse.

In his job as a financial representative, he had to drive to his clients’ homes and carry a laptop computer and documents. Soon such basic tasks became almost impossible. In time, he could no longer write or use a keyboard and had to stop working.

For nearly a year, Joe did little more than go to physical therapy and try medications and other treatments his doctors suggested. He eventually saw a pain specialist and got the chance to try neurostimulation. He found that the therapy relieved a majority of his pain.

“It’s been very beneficial,” he says. “It’s given me opportunities for pain relief.” Now in his second year of relief, Joe says that others have literally noticed the change in pain on his face. “I’ve had family members say that the look in my eyes is different,” he says. “When I’m using the stimulator, I don’t hurt as bad. It gives me reason to smile more.”

If you are considering spinal cord stimulation and would like to correspond with Joe, email him at JoeN@sjmneuro.com.