Max
07-25-2008, 07:46 PM
Spinal implant helps Marine deal with pain from Iraq injury
JENNIFER HLAD ("")
July 20, 2008 - 12:29AM
Beep. Beep. Ahhh.
Bobby Joseph straightens his back, letting out a sigh of relief as electrical signals pulse through his leg, giving him respite from the piercing pain that has racked his body since Nov. 11, 2006.
"Oh, yeah," he says, grinning.
Before the surgery, 27-year-old Joseph woke up in pain every morning. Every step with his left leg brought with it a "shocking, stabbing pain." The drugs and the nerve blocks helped, but they didn't make the pain go away. Still, when Dr. Rick Foltz first proposed implanting a device in Joseph's spine to send pulses through his body, Joseph was skeptical.
"I've seen Robocop ... I was like, I don't want to be half man, half machine," he said.
Then he did the seven-day trial.
"I felt like I was Superman," he said. "I loved it. I wanted the real thing right then and there."
In early July, Foltz and another surgeon put the device in Joseph's spinal cord. Wires and electrodes send electric signals to his nerves, changing the way the pain is transmitted to the brain, Foltz said. Joseph controls the signals with a remote device, changing the pulses based on whether he is sitting, standing or walking.
"It is basically tricking your brain, so there's no pain there," Joseph said. "It is like a pulsing massage."
http://www.enctoday.com/news/joseph_58240_jdn__article.html/pain_foltz.html
JENNIFER HLAD ("")
July 20, 2008 - 12:29AM
Beep. Beep. Ahhh.
Bobby Joseph straightens his back, letting out a sigh of relief as electrical signals pulse through his leg, giving him respite from the piercing pain that has racked his body since Nov. 11, 2006.
"Oh, yeah," he says, grinning.
Before the surgery, 27-year-old Joseph woke up in pain every morning. Every step with his left leg brought with it a "shocking, stabbing pain." The drugs and the nerve blocks helped, but they didn't make the pain go away. Still, when Dr. Rick Foltz first proposed implanting a device in Joseph's spine to send pulses through his body, Joseph was skeptical.
"I've seen Robocop ... I was like, I don't want to be half man, half machine," he said.
Then he did the seven-day trial.
"I felt like I was Superman," he said. "I loved it. I wanted the real thing right then and there."
In early July, Foltz and another surgeon put the device in Joseph's spinal cord. Wires and electrodes send electric signals to his nerves, changing the way the pain is transmitted to the brain, Foltz said. Joseph controls the signals with a remote device, changing the pulses based on whether he is sitting, standing or walking.
"It is basically tricking your brain, so there's no pain there," Joseph said. "It is like a pulsing massage."
http://www.enctoday.com/news/joseph_58240_jdn__article.html/pain_foltz.html