Ron's Story*

Ron never got a lot of relief from the medications he took for his pain condition. “They really didn’t do much for the pain,” he recalls. “They did muddle my mind and make it difficult to concentrate.”

And that was the last thing he needed. Ron was a funeral director, dealing with grieving families every day and arranging services for their departed loved ones. Part of his job required him to bend and lift, which aggravated the pain in his back, hip, and leg. In time, the pain became so disabling that Ron had to retire. He didn’t want to. He’d been in the funeral industry for 35 years and was an expert in his profession, even teaching classes in it at the University of Minnesota.

Ron’s pain was caused by a spine condition that arose after a back surgery he had undergone many years before. The pain was far different from that which most people are acquainted with. For one thing, it lingered for years, affecting Ron during the day and often at night. For another, it could be accompanied by intense stabbing and shooting sensations that added to his misery.

By the time Ron heard of spinal cord stimulation on a late-night talk show, he was depressed and uncommunicative. “I was 55 but felt like I was 75,” he says. “I kept seeing doctors but not any improvement.” He withdrew from his wife and his family and at one point thought about ending his suffering by taking an overdose of pills. “I wasn’t going to live in that much pain,” he says.

Ron’s doctor told him that in order to get a stimulator, he first had to have an outpatient procedure to test his response to the therapy. During the procedure, Ron noticed a change in his pain almost instantly. “Within ten seconds, I knew it was what I’d been needing and looking for,” he says. Not long afterwards, he got an implanted stimulator, which relieved the majority of the pain that had been troubling him.

These days, Ron’s depression has lifted, and he no longer uses powerful pain medication. Having these drugs firmly in his past has done much to improve his morale. “Clearing my mind was a big step in helping me live again,” he says. He notes that he also has a better family life, can walk and swim again, and has resumed traveling.

Recently, Ron’s original stimulator was switched for a newer model that is recharged through the skin and can last a decade before needing to be replaced. “It’s a wonderful technology,” he says when commenting on his device. “I feel blessed to have received it and finally have my life back.”

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