Knee pain
Carole, a spirited grandmother of eight, started noticing pain in her left knee years ago. She saw several orthopedists over the years, but they all gave her the same response: her knee was not bad enough for surgery. The pain progressed to the point that she felt like the bones were rubbing on each other. That’s when her doctor finally decided it was time for a total knee replacement, also known as total knee arthroplasty (TKA).
Carole was hopeful. She had spoken with several people who undergone TKA. “They were back on the tennis courts and able to do all sorts of things because of their surgery. I couldn’t wait to be active again,” she recalls.
A disheartening outcome
But after her surgery, she was disappointed. “It was nothing like everyone described. I went to physical therapy, did all the exercises, yet I was still having problems with pain,” Carole remembered. The doctor put her on Oxycodone, an opioid, which took the edge off the pain, but never fully relieved it.
As the pain worsened, Carole consulted another surgeon. This surgeon believed certain parts of her new knee were causing the pain and performed another surgery to replace those parts. However, that didn’t resolve the pain. To make matters worse, Carole couldn’t fully bend or straighten her leg. This led to yet another surgery to break up the scar tissue. But that, too, didn’t didn’t improve her pain.
Pain, frustration and desperation
Meanwhile, Carole’s pain was relentless. She continued taking the opioids every six hours even though they made her feel like she was in a fog. Fearing addiction, she made the difficult decision to quit cold turkey and turned to over-the-counter pain medications, which provided limited relief.
“Every time I moved, I was in pain. I couldn't walk anywhere. I couldn't walk my dog. I couldn't even stand for a long time. And forget about stairs,” she says.
Eventually, she was referred to a pain specialist at a medical center in Nashville. He started by performing nerve ablations, a procedure where heat is used to destroy the nerve causing the pain. The specialist performed several nerve ablations, which helped temporarily, but the pain always returned as the nerve grew back. After 18 months of ablations, Carole’s insurance stopped covering the procedure and she was left feeling hopeless.
A new hope: the SPR® SPRINT® PNS System
Just as she was starting to lose hope, Carole’s physician introduced her to a treatment for chronic pain. “He said there was this new treatment called SPRINT PNS [a 60-day, non-surgical short-term treatment designed for long-term relief of chronic pain including postoperative pain], that the medical center was starting to use, and he wanted me to try it. I told him, ‘Doc, if it could take away the pain, let’s go for it!’”
As soon as the SPRINT leads were implanted and stimulation was started, Carole started feeling relief right away. She experimented with different stimulation intensities using her hand-held remote and found that the highest intensity worked best for her. “I turned it up to the max! I was so astonished that it worked. I showed everybody, saying, ‘Oh, look at this thing I've got. I'm not feeling any pain!’”
Carole was worried that once the SPRINT System was removed, her pain would return. But she was pleasantly surprised it didn’t. “Lo and behold, they took it out, and while I still can't fully straighten or bend my leg all the way, I have had zero pain. I mean, it really changed my life.”
Ongoing relief
Today, Carole is opioid-free, has put away her walking cane, and is thrilled to be able to do things she once took for granted. In fact, for her 80th birthday this year, she celebrated by going zip-lining with her family — climbing multiple flights of stairs without a second thought. “I had no knee pain at all. I was able to do the climbing, and we had an amazing time.”
Filled with gratitude, Carole now shares her experience with everyone, saying, “I just can’t thank the SPRINT team [and my pain physician] enough. The SPRINT PNS System has truly made my life easier.”