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| Portable TENS Unit For Pain Relief |
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Question:
My wife has had some experience with these devices, for dealing
with pain from a car accident a few years ago.
It seems to work well for her.
However I should warn that these devices don't work on referred
pain (where the site of the pain is different from the location
of the injury) or for phantom pain (where the pain only occurs in
the brain, for example when a limb has been amputated but the
person still feels pain in it).
Not having experienced (yet?) what most MSers seem to experience
as pain (only that pain that seems to feel like cramping), I
haven't had the need to try this decvice on myself.
Answer:
I have been using TENS for years. I am not sure if it is for MS related
pain. The pain in the neck it treats and MS happened at exactly the same
time but it is possible that in injured my neck the day before the MS
episode began. The pain is in the same region as a MS lesion between C2 and
C3 in my spine. But it is also very possible that the physical injury
aggravated the MS lesion that could have been there for 20 years. There were
no signs of an active MS attack at the time of the episode. Since the lesion
was found 20 years after the episode only guesses can be made.
Since I started a combination of low dose Oxicontin, Elivil & Topamax I have
been doing better than I have in a long time. I am physically stronger and
less depressed. The down side is I am not taking enough Oxycontin to mask
the arthritis pain in my toe if I am too active.
The moral of the story is control the pain. For years I was satisfied to get
it down to a bearable level when I should have be trying to achieve an un
noticeable level 80 or 90% of the time.
my physical therapist turned me on to the TENS unit a couple years ago.
works GREAT on my spastic back. scrambles the nerves so much that the
muscles eventualy relax and lighten up.
any back pain at all...the TENS melts away like butter.
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