Anne rang me last week to warn me of her no-show, with an explanation.  After several painful years on the waiting list she had at last been fitted with a spinal chord stimulator.  The operation had taken place just a few days earlier.  What’s a spinal chord stimulator?  See my earlier post.  (If  you don’t want to follow those links: it’s an electronic device a bit like a pacemaker which stops pain signals from reaching the brain.)

After my treatment, I called on her for a cup of coffee, on my way back to the airport.  She was already looking great!  It seems to have been a very successful application of this technology.  While she is still feeling the effects of what was a fairly major operation, the results have been dramatic and her drug intake is already well down.  It’s quite possible Anne will manage without any pills from now on.  Amazing, because she was on some heavy-duty stuff!  The infusions at Burwood which were a vital part of her treatment are a thing of the past.

I wanted to give her a great big bear hug.  Not exactly appropriate, so soon after surgery, but I was so happy for her and her husband!  Instead she got the gentlest hug I could manage.

Anne was happy for me too.  I have just started a new anti-arthritis drug which looks as if it might transform my life.  I haven’t yet made another appointment at Burwood and the nurses got Rosy Glow chocolates brought all the way from Golden Bay, just in case that was my last visit.  But that’s another story.

I have to say, that ranks right up there as one of the best afternoon teas I’ve had!

A comfortable spot for an afternoon

Sometimes I’m lucky enough to witness something quite remarkable: a patient comes in to have their implant tuned.  These “lucky” people have been fitted with a spinal-cord stimulator, an electronic substitute for painkilling drugs.  A small voltage generator is implanted under the skin, with a bunch of electrodes leading to various points along the spinal cord.  Very small voltages transmitted through these electrodes interfere with the pain signals travelling up the spinal cord to the brain.

Result?  no more pain! Except sometimes some fine tuning is required, hence the following conversation overheard between patient and nurse:

Patient (pale, perspiring lightly): “The pain is really bad”

Nurse (standing opposite patient, pulling a PDA from pocket): “where is it hurting?”

Patient: “My left knee”

Nurse (fiddles with stylus on PDA screen): “Well, let’s try increasing the voltage on the electrode 13″

Patient: ” That’s too much, I can feel it tingling.”

Nurse: “OK, I’ll back off a bit” (fiddles again with stylus on i-phone or blackberry or whatever)

Patient (visibly cheering up): ” That’s brilliant! Perfect! Thanks!  See you.”

Patient shakes nurse’s hand, exits Pain Management Procedures Room.  The whole, non-contact process has taken five minutes. It really is amazing technology.

We met one poor guy who, suffering terrible chronic pain after a car crash, had been connected to a morphine pump for more than two years.  Now, fitted with a spinal cord stimulator, he needs little or no pain medication.  Needless to say he was very happy with this improvement in quality of life!

Important to choose the correct door!