A break in the action

Out there, living her life, Sara is an ER Technician and she is not close to running out of mountains to climb. Emboldened by her many physical accomplishments, she took on new challenges, like riding dirt bikes.

Unfortunately, while riding her dirt bike, she took a rough spill and broke a bolt on the spinal brace she’d had since the fusion surgery. The metal was repaired but the flesh was not so lucky. Her severe pain led to increased medication and decreased mobility. Numerous treatments followed: sacroiliac joint injections, more meds, physical therapy … and yet, no relief. 

Soon she would no longer be able to lead the active outdoor and social life that had come to define her, limiting her interaction with her young children and friends. Eventually, even the 30-minute car ride to visit her parents proved overwhelming. It all came to be much too much, isolating her from the people and activities she loved.

“Emotionally, it’s depressing—33 and I should be active, but I can’t take my kids places,” she said. 

She felt her young body aging far beyond her years, with constant aching and throbbing that forced her to retire to the couch for days at a time. 

You want many things for the star of this story, but chronic pain is certainly not one of them. None of this was in the original script.

Stimulation, revitalization

Searching for a treatment option that would allow her to re-engage with her own life, and that did not involve medications, Sara returned to the care of her pain management physician. The doctor had an idea. They discussed an innovative approach to her chronic pain: Spinal Cord Stimulation.

“She’s the first doctor who believed I was in pain and not a pill seeker,” Sara said.

She was “all-in” from the beginning, willing to try just about anything to give her back her old life. With Abbott’s Proclaim XR recharge-free stimulation system, Sara manages her pain using a low-energy therapy that works by sending mild electrical pulses to change pain signals as they travel from the spinal cord to the brain.

Simply put, the technology works by blocking the nerves from telling Sara’s brain that she is in pain. “The whole concept is amazing to me,” she said. In order to see if the therapy worked for her, Sara used a temporary system during an evaluation period. The impact was swift and life-changing. Sara—one of an estimated 50 million people in the United States living with chronic pain—experienced 70-75% pain relief during the trial period.

The Proclaim XR SCS platform is app-based and includes upgradeable software so that, as advances are approved, they can be seamlessly introduced to the patient without further surgery. That was the case for the low-dose update that uses less energy, extending battery life for up to a decade.*

Since receiving her implanted system, Sara can do things she hasn’t been able to in a long time—like housework and other activities without resting. Even more impactful than chore endurance, Sara is now capable of spending more—and better—time with her family, including those formerly prohibitive car rides to the grandparents’ house that were seemingly part of the past. Now they are an important part of the present and future.

*Up to 10 years of battery longevity at the lowest dose setting: 0.6mA, 500 Ohms, duty cycle 30s on/360s off. NOTE: In neurostimulation therapy, ‘dose’ refers to the delivery of a quantity of energy to tissue. There is no demonstrated difference in safety or effectiveness among these doses.