New perspective—and hobbies—after receiving StimRouter PNS for his chronic shoulder pain

I had my stroke 14 years ago and suffered from post-stroke chronic shoulder pain. I tried anything to help with the pain. After 7 years of PT/OT rehabilitation, I said, “This is it—this is the best I’m ever going to get, so I stopped. I had to just suck it up when it came to the pain.”

I tried everything you can think of though — I had a sling to stop my shoulder from moving, but that was useless. I tried pain med after pain med, but nothing succeeded. All of it was to no avail.

One day, my stroke doctor sent me to a pain management doctor who introduced me to StimRouter. I had to laugh at first; I thought nothing can take this pain away. But I had tried everything else, so I said let’s give it a shot.

Once the StimRouter was implanted, everything was pretty much OK with my pain. I can say the stimulator is working very well for me. It was programmed by the doctor two weeks after the implant, and after a day of using the StimRouter system with my remote control, my pain started to go away.

I would keep it on for about two hours and then I wouldn’t need it for the rest of the day, because the pain relief carried over. I was really impressed with how fast it worked.

Before StimRouter, I would say my pain went off the scale— above a ten for sure— because my pain was really bad. Sometimes it hurt to breathe. Now, with the help of StimRouter, my pain is only a 2 or 3 at most.

I wear my system all day, but I only turn it on every 6 to 8 hours, depending on what I’m doing that day. The patches stay on well, but come off just as easily. When it’s on, it feels like a massage chair on your arm.

The StimRouter works well for me; I feel very lucky. I can lift my arm enough to put on deodorant now and I’ve picked up some new hobbies. It’s a process and I still have goals like being able to ride my bike, but I would recommend StimRouter to people in pain without a doubt in my mind.

I didn’t expect much at first, but I was quite surprised, very happily surprised. The StimRouter is great. If anyone ever asked me, I would tell them straight out, “It works and it works well for me!”