Modern Technology

Drove down tot he Mission Home and spent the night, received a priesthood blessing before driving to the city for a miraculous procedure.
Sorry for the fuzy pics, This is where the leads come out of the spine area and are taped to his back and attached to the leads that go to the stimulator.
Dougs new best friend. Now try sleeping with this machine.

What a blessing we are experiencing with the gift of Modern Technology. The ANS - MTS System. (Advanced Neuromodulation Systems - Multiprogram Trial Stimulator) Now that's a mouthful. This system enables you to try spinal cord stimulation therapy that delivers low-intensity electrical impulses to selected nerve fibers as a method of pain control for certain types of chronic pain.

We went down to the City (NYC) for a procedure in Doug's back. We have found a Doctor with the Pain management clinic and have been going to him for the past 11 months, due to the pain Doug lives with everyday, due to a disease called Pernitious Anemia that has damaged his periphereal nerves in his legs. (Long story over the past 20 years.) A couple of months ago, Dr Chapman told us about this stimulator that he has had great success with. Gave us some literature on it and told us to think about it. For some reason, Dougs pain maintenance medication hasn't worked as well as it has in the past. Hence, he has had a lot of pain and we decided to look into this new technology. With this stimulator, they offer a test, trial period of about 2 weeks. The purpose of the stimulator is to mix up the pain signal being sent to your brain when you are experiencing pain. The electrical impulses are believed to stop the pain messages from being transmitted to the brain and replace areas of pain with a tingling or massaging sensation called paresthesia or stimulation. The Doctor uses an epidural needle (similar to when a women gets an epidural when having a baby) and fishes two leads(wires) into the back near the spinal cord where the nerves travel. The leads are left in the spine area and taped to the back where it is attached to cables that are attached to the stimulator that is a battery powered external device which generates electrical impulses and sends them to the leads. For the trial this stimulator is kept on the outside of the body and worn on your belt. It has been set with 4 different programs that Doug can manage on his own.

So far so good. The epidural spot is extremely sore and will be for a couple of days. It is hard for Doug to get up and down, bend over, roll over in bed. But the most exciting part is that IT IS WORKING!!!! It is scrambling the pain messages. The trick will be to get accustom to the new stimuli. After the trial period, the leads will be taken out and we will have to schedule the permanent implantation. This will require a hospital stay for a couple of days, unlike the office visit for the trial application. The stimulator that will be permanent is about the size of a silver dollar and lies right under the skin in the back and will be connected to the leads in the spine area. Doug will then carry a remote control in his pocket that will control the stimuli sensations. The battery has a ten year life. Well, now you have had your medical health lesson for the week. You know as much as we do about the ANS-MTS system. (Thank Heavens our Wood project is pretty much done.)

A special thanks to all of you who have loved, prayed & fasted, and supported us here in NY. Luv u Much!!!!!!!