The second patient had multiple sclerosis and chronic pain from nervous system affects of the MS.  She was not a surgical candidate and is wheel chair bound for now.  She does use a walker and would be able to get up and walk with walker or cane assistence. She saw a surgeon but was not a candidate.

Both of these patients would be able to have a spinal cord stimulator trial which involves placing small electrode or button arrays in the very back of the spinal column and next to the spinal cord.  Sounds scary but it really isn’t.  The leads are place via needles under local anesthesia and some sedation to calm the nerves.  The real beauty is that it can be trialed for 5 days to see if each person with pain likes it because the effect of it is to replace the pain with a pleasant tingling.  The devices are on their fourth generation and so are much more realiable and user friendly than before.  Both patients are moving forward as quickly as we can get them scheduled.  More information is available at http://mvpainclinic.com/service-conditions-lowback.html under the spinal cord stimulator implant link.  You can also see one other patient’s story on video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4SEJq0MEw3c&feature=youtu.be&noredirect=1.  Please let me know what you think about this.

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