(NAPSA)—Iraq war veteran and helicopter pilot Captain Darisse Smith suddenly felt like she was being stabbed in the hip with a butcher knife, a searing pain that went down her leg and never stopped. She had logged more than 600 hours in the Army’s challenging Kiowahelicopter and she had control the intensity of the implant’s signal with a remote control. She is now training for a triathlon, has white-water canoed down one of the nation’s most challenging rivers and taken an active vacation to Puerto Rico. Chronic pain such as Darisse’s maybe the military’s next big battlefront. With thousands of troops come to Iraq to combat an exter- nal/military enemy. But now she faced an internal enemy that was wounding her around theclock. The leg pain becameso intense and constant that the once vibrant triathlon competitor was given a maximum dose of powerful pain drugs andrelegated to a sedentary life. Military doctors diagnosed the pain as a consequenceof the cockpit pounding shetook in herhelicopter, and said she’d “have to learn to live with it.” But Darisse wasn’t used to taking no for an answer. She tried acupuncture, endless injections and combinations of drugs, none of which made the pain go away. The pain forced her to separate from the military and leave a job she loved. After three years of endless torment, she finally came across an answer. A civilian pain specialist suggested she try a small rechargeable spinal cord stimulator from Boston Scientific. returning from the war on terror Darisse Smith got back the life she refused to give up. While she trains for the triathlon, she’s already planning her next snowboarding destinations. Join her in the search to turn your tears of pain into the joy of triumph. She found out that she could “test-drive” it for a week externally, without having it implanted, to see if it made the pain go away. What a difference the spinal cord stimulator made. That weekend Darisse ran, biked and walked with her dogs, pain-free for the first time in years. She had the small stimulator implanted with a surgical procedure and can with pain that won’t go away, technology—not narcotics—may be the answer. Pain specialists are bracing for an influx of new veterans as patients. And the problem of chronic pain is by no means relegated to our servicemen and -women. A USA Today/ABC News/ Stanford University Medical Center poll indicates that 19 percent of American adults—almost one in five—say they suffer from chronic pain. Captain Darisse Smith’s answer to those in chronic pain is “Never give up! You are your own best pain advocate. Keep searching until you find a doctor whogetsit.” Spinal cord stimulation could be the answer you are lookingfor. For more information, visit www.controlyourpain.com. You can also join a community of other pain sufferers online at www.raceagainstpain.com to find out what is workingfor others.
