Shoulder pain
About five years ago, Shannon began experiencing pain in her right shoulder, then in her left. She wasn’t particularly active, so its cause was a mystery. “It seemed to come from nowhere, so I just wrote it off as just another thing that comes with age,” she recalls.
She mentioned it to her family physician, who prescribed steroid shots and Vicodin, an opioid painkiller. Each provided some relief, but it didn’t last. She then saw an orthopedist, hoping for answers, but instead the orthopedist downplayed her pain. “He just said, ‘You’re fine,’ and told me the tissues just needed time to heal. I felt like he wrote me off and didn’t believe me.”
Sleep was difficult
As the pain persisted, so did its impact on her life. Shannon was a side sleeper, but the pain meant she could only lie on her back. She was lucky to get five hours of total sleep during those nights.
Raising her arms became excruciating, making everyday tasks difficult and painful. Eventually, she had to give up her warehouse job. And because it hurt to do almost anything, she limited her activities, and her world got very small. She became depressed. “Mentally and physically, this wasn’t a place I wanted to remain for another 30 or 40 years,” she admits.
Meanwhile, she continued to take Vicodin every day and tried various other treatments to relieve her discomfort. “I did pretty much the gamut: prescription-strength Tylenol, over-the-counter medications, lidocaine patches, ice, heat, physical therapy, you name it,” she says.
A new physician and a diagnosis
After a while, Shannon started seeing a pain medicine physician. He started her with physical therapy, but Shannon was hampered by her inability to move and raise her arms any higher than 90 degrees.
On her next visit, Shannon begged her doctor to take images of her shoulders to see what was going on. He was surprised to learn that no imaging had been done previously, so he ordered an MRI. For the first time, Shannon finally got a diagnosis: rotator cuff tears in both shoulders. Her doctor referred her to an orthopedic surgeon for surgery.
Three surgeries, no real pain relief
The surgeon operated on Shannon’s right shoulder first and then on the left shoulder about six months later to repair the rotator cuff tears believed to be causing her pain. Unfortunately, the pain relief didn’t last: Shannon’s right shoulder started hurting again, which led to yet another surgery to revise what was done the first time around. Shannon recalls, “It hurt worse than my rotator cuff surgery. I cried all the time after that.”
Despite her best efforts, the pain made physical therapy nearly impossible. Shannon vented her frustration to her doctor. “I told him I didn’t want to keep going through this cycle of pain and surgeries over and over” she explained.
Introducing SPR® SPRINT® Peripheral Nerve Stimulation (PNS) System
That’s when her doctor introduced her to the SPRINT PNS System, a 60-day treatment for chronic pain. After explaining how the system worked, Shannon was eager to try it.
After the SPRINT leads were implanted, Shannon was astonished to find that her pain level had improved from a rating of 10 to a 2 in just one day. With her pain finally under control, Shannon resumed physical therapy and progressed faster than she ever imagined. She says, “I was doing so much better in terms of strength and range of motion than before. My therapist was amazed and told me I was way ahead in my recovery in comparison to others who had a similar surgery.”
Sadly, not long after finding relief in her right shoulder, Shannon’s left shoulder started hurting again. Dreading a fourth surgery, she contacted her doctor to ask if they could try the SPRINT PNS System on her left shoulder — potentially eliminating the need for further surgery. Shortly after, SPRINT PNS was implanted for her left shoulder.
So far, no additional surgery needed
The second SPRINT PNS treatment worked just as well for Shannon. In fact, within two weeks she was able to wean herself off all the prescription painkillers. Today, she says she has zero pain in either shoulder, and she has so far been able to hold off on additional surgeries.
“It’s been incredible. I kind of expected after my surgeries that I would be happy being at a pain level of eight because it's better than where I was. But now? I have zero pain in both shoulders. In fact, I am feeling just as good as I did before anything happened, and even my range of motion and strength is better than it was before the surgery. I honestly attribute that to the SPRINT PNS System.”
Shannon finally has her life back — and she’s holding on to it.