![]() ![]() "I want to do interventional pain management," he said. Now in his first year of medical school, Le already knows he wants to pursue chronic pain management in the future, so that he can someday help others like him. "I used to be able to exert myself for one, maybe two hours and then I'd have to rest." "I moved into my apartment here and that was a whole-day effort that I couldn't have done before," he said. He recently started medical school in San Antonio. I left the controller in the car and it was totally fine."Īfter everything he's been through, Ryan was inspired to pursue a career in medicine. The electricity is inside the body so it wasn't an issue. "I was a little worried about going, but they assured me that it wouldn't be a problem," Le said. Indeed, on vacation not long ago, his scuba diving trip went off without a hitch. Like, if I go on vacation, I'm definitely packing it." ![]() I live pretty close to class, so I don't have to have the controlled with me 24/7, but it's something I always keep close. "The iPod controller goes everywhere I go, for sure," Le said. He has found that he rarely needs to do that. If he ever needs a dose alteration, he can change the voltage with a handheld controller. "The care team chose to slowly wean him off the pain pump after his stimulator was implanted and Ryan's pain pump was removed successfully."ĭoctors adjusted the stimulation settings to match Le's needs. "Most patients getting a DRG stimulator won't have an implanted pain pump, but Ryan's case was special," Burton said. Gradually, Le's doctors began reducing his pain pump dosage and adjusting treatment from Le's DRG until 2018 when the pain pump was removed entirely. Stimulation: When - And Where - It's Needed ![]() "The incision was healing but as far as the pain, the surgery went off pretty well." "They implanted it and I was back in class right away," Le said. Taking pre-medical courses to apply to medical school, his chronic pain journey inspired him to change his career path. His recovery went so well that he went back to school that next week. Le finally had his stimulator implanted for the DRG therapy. "I didn't want to be on opiates for the rest of my life," said Le, now 27. But the idea of spending the rest of his life dependent on medication being pumped into his body didn't sit well. So his doctors had to implant a pain pump in the meantime. The only hiccup? The therapy hadn't yet cleared FDA approval and Le was too young for the clinical trial. "The pain that Ryan was suffering from is called causalgia, which was related to the nerve injury in his groin." Burton, Le's then-physician and now Abbott's medical director of neuromodulation. "The therapy is ideal for people like Ryan, meaning those who have chronic pain lasting longer than six months either due to trauma or nerve damage," said Dr. The system involves sending electrical pulses to an implanted stimulator that helps disrupt pain signals. His physician suggested they try something new: dorsal root ganglion (DRG) stimulation. Le left school and moved back home near Houston, his future uncertain and indefinitely on hold. Injections, nerve ablation and a peripheral nerve stimulator followed - nothing seemed to work. That pain would continue for several years despite multiple surgeries, medications, procedures and devices. The injuries and testicular surgery left him in debilitating chronic pain, desperately searching for relief. He had significant trauma which led to repeated surgeries on his groin region.Īfter one procedure, Le woke up to a new normal. He was a college sophomore in Austin, Texas, studying engineering.īut after the motorcycle accident, everything changed. The 20-year-old had been living life just as he'd planned. Seven years ago, it seemed like nothing could stand in Ryan Le's way. ![]()
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