Lisa M*

When her daughter started taking dance classes, Lisa looked forward to supporting the activity. “Dance is kind of a mother and daughter thing,” she says. Unfortunately, Lisa often couldn’t take her daughter to classes or recitals. Chronic pain would prevent it.

Lisa’s pain was the belated result of an auto accident and a surgery that followed. For years after the surgery, she was an outreach educator for the University of Illinois, going to communities to teach people about parenting, caring for the elderly, and improving their marriages. Gradually, severe leg pain became a daily reality for Lisa. This pain, plus the demands of her young family, forced her to a difficult decision: after 17 years, she left the career that had meant so much to her.

Yet at home, pain kept stealing her quality of life. Lisa was on high doses of pain medication much of the time and spent her days sleeping or lying quietly, not doing much of anything. “I just felt terrible,” she says. “Pain takes so much energy, and you just don’t have a lot left over after fighting it.” Lisa not only missed her daughter’s dance events, she also stopped attending her son’s wrestling matches and football games. The pain also caused her to cancel family plans, including a trip to New York to celebrate her daughter’s eighth-grade graduation.

Lisa was told that neurostimulation might help her but she had reservations about the idea. “It was a little scary,” she says. “But I was so eager to try something that could get rid of my pain.” She underwent a test procedure to see if the therapy would work for her, and when it did, she had a neurostimulator implanted. It was a turning point in her struggle with pain.

According to Lisa, the neurostimulator has given her much of her life back. Her pain is around a quarter of what it used to be, and she only takes pain medication on days when her symptoms are intense. Having less pain has allowed her to enjoy her family more, do volunteer work, and even take a vacation to the Napa wine country, things that would have been difficult if not totally out of the question before.

“It’s worked beautifully for me,” she says of her device. “I realize it doesn’t work for everyone, but for a lot of people, it can make a difference. It’s definitely worth a try.”

If you are considering spinal cord stimulation and would like to correspond with Lisa, email her at LisaM@sjmneuro.com.