In June 2001 I came down with GPS, and definitely became a game changer in my life. In April of 2001 I retired from my job in law enforcement and looked forward to new possibilities and career opportunities, but it all came to an end in 2 short months. I spend 3 weeks in ICU and 4 months in rehab and came a long way from being paralyzed from my neck down. In time I gained most of my feelings back with the exception from my ankles down. I was left with the 24 hour a day hot burning melting sensation in my feet that drove me up the wall. I basically became a medical junkie by the doctors but I couldn’t handle the pain without the meds so for 14 years I lived on the meds. In June of 2014 I accompanied my wife to see her pain mgt doctor, and it was first time I had the opportunity of meeting him. My Neuro doc supplied me with my meds so never had a need for pain mgt. As my wife’s doctor and I got into talking small talk the subject of my GPS came and he asked me if I ever thought about having a Neuro Stimulator implanted to help with your pain and I felt like a real ass not even knowing what the hell he was talking about. He took the time and explained the process and also stated its one of the only procedures you can test out first to see if it helps. Wires are attached to the spine and a box that controls the voltage in placed in a holster on the outside of the body. It is in layman’s terms a Tens Machine. For this trail to be considered successful it needs to reduce pain by at least 50% .if the threshold met then you have a permanent is installed and the box in inserted under the skin on your upper butt area and is about size of a pacemaker. I don’t know if this could help everyone but it’s worth looking into. Prior to this procedure I was taking 5 Vicodin a day since implant I am down to 2 a day and hope to be completely off all pain meds in time…
Just a question for you, how long was your recovery from being paralyzed until you could walk. I too was paralyzed from neck down 3 years ago but still can’t walk or have feeling in my extremities. My upper body came somewhat back to life within a year.
Did you do any PT in a swimming pool? I couldn't walk either until doing pool PT. it helped getting feeling back in legs and feet, but they are still pretty numb.
It took me about 6 months to get around. I did do a lot of exercising in my pool and it did help however from my ankles down my feet are dead but with feelings of pain…pain meds help but never took me out of discomfort but I accepted m
y limitations and tried to make the best of it. Getting hooked wife’s pain mgt was a godsend .my life has changed more than words can express I recommend the Neuro stimulator to all my GBS Survivors