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Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Multiple Sclerosis, Neuromuscular Stimulator, and Having Hope For a Change

What a great day I had today! I wish they could all be like this, but I will take the good ones when they come along. I am an excellent candidate for the neuro-stimulator, it was pretty cool. They fitted everything, put it on me, and turned it on. It wasn't an unpleasant feeling, it was kind of like the feeling I had for years, pins and needles, just concentrated in one spot. She got my foot to lift, bend and she got it to twist. When everything was right, I got up and walked down the hall, no cane, no brace, it was great!

Here is a real simplified explanation of how it works, real simplified. The thingy around your calf sends a signal to the thingy in the heel of your shoe. If your heel is on the floor, nothing happens. When you go up onto you toes, or when your heel leaves the floor, the calf sends a pulse to the heal telling it to bend the ankle. You step forward and your heel touches the ground, sending a signal to the calf telling it to stop, and it does. When the signal stops, the ankle unbends, putting your foot flat on the floor again. Pretty cool. They even set it up so it would pulse a split second longer to help stop me from hyper extending my right knee.

Next step is to fill out the application, a not too lengthy process, I need to get a prescription, and I need to set up an appointment with the technician. The company suggests you rent the device for the first to the fourth month, at $500 a month. You rent to own, with the rental fee going to the cost, which looks to be about $6,500 in total. There is still a hope that insurance will be a part of this, but it doesn't look good. All I know is I walked down the hallway today, sans aides, for the first time in a few years, without tripping, without dragging, and without worry. I feel like in what has been a long battle we won today, and it feels good!

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wonderful blog...are you able to tell me the name of the stimulator, I am a 37 year old male with MS (relapsing and remitting), diagnosed 14 years ago, living in Canada, don't know if we can access the type of stimulator you have tried..? It sounds really promising...thanks in advance...
Stephen Mersereau
stephen_mersereau@yahoo.ca

awb said...

http://www.bioness.com/Bioness_for_Foot_Drop.php

Here is the website Stephen, good luck with it all.

Herrad said...

Hi,

The stimulator sounds excellent wow!
Walking how wonderful.
Have fun with it.
Love,
Herrad

awb said...

Thanks herrad, it was nice to get good news for a change.

Slammermike said...

So I guess you figure that you can beat my ass again in a foot race. Actually you probably still could with out the stimulator. I'm glad it looks promising. I hope the insurance covers it>