Page 26 - Indulge May 2017

Feel Kam Peter is feeling
no better and back to
Pain spending quality time
with her grandchildren.
New procedure
targets specific
nerves to
provide relief

Kam Peter battled Chronic Regional
Pain Syndrome for 15 years, ever
since a hernia operation in 2001.

The registered nurse from Jersey Shore,
Pa. remembers going through 15 operations,
which only provided temporary relief for
chronic intractable pain that extended from
her hernia incision toward her abdomen,
into her thigh, and sometimes down her leg
behind her knee and into her foot.

Debilitating pain is a widespread problem,
with about 76.2 million Americans — that’s
one in four — having suffered from pain that
lasts longer than 24 hours, according to the
National Center for Health Statistics.

By 2012, Peter was forced to give up her
career as a registered nurse because of the
dosages of narcotics and other medications
she needed to relieve hot burning pain
that felt like bee stings or being stuck by
straight pins. The pain became so severe
that, at times, she could not walk because
the sensation of clothing against her skin
induced such intense pain.

Enter St. Luke’s University Health
Network. Peter heard about a new procedure
called Dorsal Root Ganglion stimulation
being performed by doctors at St. Luke’s.
The ultra-specific spinal cord stimulation
procedure provides unprecedented relief
for patients with CRPS in the lower body,
particularly the foot, knee and groin.

26 | indulge • may 2017