Her name is Roberta Lafuze and she’ll never forget the day she injured her right leg.

“I had taken the puppy out of our shop to go to the potty and I slipped in mud, did the splits, tore my hamstrings, my sciatic nerve and then I had severe nerve damage,” says Roberta.

After a year of nearly nonstop pain, she had nearly lost all hope. Pain ruled her life.

“It was the most excruciating, burning pain that would not stop. I mean day and night. And pain medicine did not help. I don’t know where i’d be right now without it.”

She was finally referred to Dr. Derron Wilson, a pain management specialist with Goodman Campbell. He recommended she try a pacemaker looking device, called a Dorsal Root Ganglion Stimulator.

“The benefit of this therapy is it allows us to be extremely specific to the nerves that are affected,” says Dr. Wilson.

An X-ray of Roberta’s back shows exactly where the leads are placed on the dorsal ganglion nerve and where Dr. Wilson implanted the battery, which should last anywhere from five to seven years.

“She had leads that are targeting the DRG and the redundancy.  The battery is implanted underneath the skin in her lower back area,” says Wilson. 

The leads deliver a very light current to the nerve, changing Roberta’s pain signal.

“It essentially means we’re altering the signals the brain is receiving from the spinal chord and the nerves,” says Wilson. 

The result was nearly immediate and Roberta is virtually pain free. She’s walking easily and grateful to Dr. Wilson.

“It gave me my life back,” says Roberta. “When I came out of surgery I had no nerve pain. It’s gone.” 

For more information on the DRG click on the link below.

https://study.com/academy/lesson/dorsal-root-ganglion-function-definition.html​