SPRINT PNS for knee pain
“Even the next day, I had no pain and I could get up and walk a little bit. I loved it!”
Knee pain
When Carolyn was in grade school, she fell and hit her left knee on the edge of a sidewalk. That injury caused her pain on and off throughout her life, sometimes impacting her work at a clothing warehouse distribution center, where she spent 39 years.
Carolyn, a widowed grandmother of four, retired from the warehouse in 2011. She says she loved the warehouse work, but it was very physical and estimates she was on her feet walking around 99 percent of each shift. “Once, I got a cyst in my knee and the doctor drained it,” says Carolyn, “but the pain and stiffness never went away. I’d put heat on it, rub all kinds of stuff on it and nothing would help.”
“I also have a bad back, which put stress on my knee, making it worse as I did all that walking,” she explains. In fact, it was back surgery that led to Carolyn’s retirement, but the issues with the knee continued.
Difficulty walking
Carolyn noticed her knee pain was getting worse about two years ago. “It just started hurting and didn’t stop. It made it really hard because I could hardly walk, could hardly function. All I would do is sit in my bed or on the couch with my knee propped up on a pillow,” Carolyn explains.
She continued trying to find relief, including using pain-relief skin patches, and also received prescription pain medication, but she says it didn’t really help. “It would take the edge off the pain,” says Carolyn, “but it never took the pain away.”
Then a nurse practitioner referred Carolyn to Dr. Anand Navarasala of Franciscan Health in Indianapolis, Indiana. Dr. Navarasala initially used an injection to reduce the inflammation and pain in her knee, but according to Carolyn, the injection didn’t provide any lasting relief. That’s when Dr. Navarasala suggested using the SPRINT® PNS System’s 60-day treatment.
Off the couch and into life
Carolyn says when she heard about SPRINT, she immediately made up her mind to try it. Shortly after, Dr. Navarasala implanted the system in a procedure that took just minutes. “The wires went into my knee. There was no pain, nothing,” says Carolyn. “Even the next day, I had no pain and I could get up and walk a little bit. I loved it!”
Months after the treatment Carolyn says she still feels no knee pain. “I can get up and walk through my apartment better. It’s nice; I can go outside now for things other than just going to the doctor.”