It is with a very excited and
hopeful heart that I write this post!! As many of you know I daily struggle
with intense chronic pain all over. Never easing up, never ceasing. During my
flares it gets so intense and terrible that I sometimes can’t even get out of
the house. I’ve tried every nerve pain medicine on the market to no avail, and
usually ending up with side effects worse than the original problem! But every
once in a while on top of this chronic pain I have a left thigh issue that pops
up ever couple years and literally feels like I am walking and moving around
with a broken femur. The past 2 weeks have been completely excruciating and
debilitating, leaving me wheelchair bound even at home.
As with my chronic pain, this
breakthrough pain has left doctors without a cause or any treatment that even
lessens the pain. Honestly the past couple days have been really tough –
physically of course, but emotionally and mentally as well. It’s definitely
starting to wear on me and I just feel completely useless and defeated.
Yesterday was a series of roller coaster hopes of getting in to see various
pain specialists in town but to only have them not work out for one reason or
another, or not be able to be seen for months.
I would love to say the next
part of the story was a crazy coincidence, but I absolutely know it was God
working through the people around me. My mom texted me (aware of my pain level)
and said she saw a commercial for this product called Quell. So I did my
research thing and looked it up and it’s the only FDA approved device that is
supposed to strap around your calf, and through a series of gentle electro
stimulation, lessen your chronic pain! Sound too good to be true? I thought so.
Also, if it was seen on tv how legit could it really be?? But at this point I’m
completely desparate and grasping for straws, and I managed to find a retailer
that sold it in a city about 45 minutes
away – so I went to get it! This is what it looks like!
The directions that come with
it state that some people find relief in 15 minutes and some must wait 2-3
weeks depending on their level of chronic pain and how long they’ve had it (I’ve
only had it some 17 years, so naturally I’m banking on this 15 minute business
;) ). I can say after about 30 minutes I start to feel it. It’s a weird
sensation, it’s like the area covered by
the band feels tingly and numb like when your foot falls asleep, and as time
goes on that sensation is traveling to other nerves, making them feel asleep.
Which, when you’re in constant pain, is quite blissful. I won't get too into the science of it. But basically it has electrodes around my leg that stimulate the sensory nerves every other hour for an hour. These sensory nerves are what carry pain messages to the brain, so with some of them "blocked" it allows my body to get endorphins and other natural pain relief signals to my brain when normally it's overloaded with the pain signals and the other messages don't go through.
Having chronic pain makes it
hard to have hope. When you constantly search for answers and get excited about
a new medicine, treatment, or doctor only to find out that they don’t know how
to proceed or the treatment doesn’t work. And after yesterday with my hopes
dashed over and over I didn’t want to go into this having an expectations. But
I can say – with GREAT pleasure – that it’s now about 17 hours in and I’m
already feeling relief in my leg!! It’s minimal, but right now I will take
anything I can get! And if it’s already having this much effect, I’m anxiously
hoping that in the next couple days it will completely alleviate my thigh
issue. And who knows, in a couple weeks what if it took away my chronic pain as
well? Or at least lessened it??
I can’t explain the excitement
and simultaneous relief it is to find something that is working even a little,
and has quite the potential to do a lot!! This is a drug free method that can
make my live more bearable! I don't want to get too ahead of myself and call this a success yet, but I think the potential is pretty exciting. And if that means I constantly have to run around
looking like I’ve escaped house arrest – that’s a small price to pay ;)
