Going Voom At Ten Thousand Hertz

Oh, this should be fun.

Actually, I’m looking forward to it. So is my wife. Especially my wife, if it works.

After eight months of acute back pain that has rendered me unable to drive or do much of anything else, I finally have a chance to get rid of the pain and ditch at least some of the pain medicine that comes with it. I finally have a chance to drive again.

If it works.

The “it” I keep referring to is an implant that will stimulate my spinal cord at 10 KHz. It’s called Nevro HF10™ therapy, and it’s implanted over two surgical sessions. The first operation inserts it in a “test drive” mode to see if it works at all. If it does, they go back in and implant it permanently.

If I understand correctly, it blocks the pain signals coming from certain parts of your body by sending a high frequency signal that overrides them, preventing them from ever reaching the brain. I may be a tad bit off on my explanation, so read the above link if you want to see exactly how it works. The important part is that it’s supposed to keep my back from hurting. If I’m lucky, it’ll help with the pain left from the ankles I broke severely in 2009 as well (but that’s on another blog).

I’ll have some sort of control device hooked to me, I assume, to fine-tune the output of the contraption. If I decide to keep it permanently, I’ll be given a remote control, which I’d better not lose. (I have visions of my spinal cord reacting to someone’s TV across the street.)

The first operation is scheduled for October 25th, so I don’t have much time to prepare myself mentally. That’s compared to the eternity it took for the hospital and insurance company to approve the operation in the first place. I swear, it was at least a month, maybe longer.

Anyway, please wish me luck. It’s not going to get me off of disability, but it just might give me back a bit of quality of life.

If it works.