Nov 3

Written by: Lee Edwards
11/3/2009 11:01 AM 

November 2, 2009, Georgetown,OH… In spite of cool temperatures, the Rein In Pain 5 Mile Pain Awareness Walk on Sunday, October 18th, was well attended and accomplished the goal the project intended. “It was our hope that through this walk we could bring attention to help that is now available for pain,” said Dr. Magdalena Kerschner, director for the Center for Interventional Pain Management at Brown County General Hospital. “I believe we accomplished what we set out to do with help from our area newspapers, radio stations and Cincinnati television news departments who were so supportive to this project,” said Kerschner. Among the walkers was formula race car driver Mike Roman, whose battle with pain started in 1994 and went on for ten years before finding help from an interventional pain management doctor. Now, he is pain free with the help of a spinal cord stimulator and spends much of his time these days bringing attention to pain issues and sharing his personal story of how the spinal cord stimulator gave him back his life. “Miracles come in all shapes and sizes and the spinal cord stimulator was just that for me. If you’re in pain, you’re not alone because there is help in your community,” said Roman in a WFTM Breakfast Club interview with Danny Weddle. Another race car driver who walked in support of pain awareness was Robert Lee, of Adams County. Robert spent 20 years in pain with diabetic neuropathy . Through this long-time struggle with pain he felt his Chaplain career slipping away and the medications he was taking removing him from race car driving. “The pain had taken everything”, said Lee. “One day I decided that I needed to get help for all the pain medications I was taking. I went to my computer to see what help there was for me. This is where I found Dr. Kerschner,” he said.  “A month later, I received a call from Dr. Kerschner’s office to set up an appointment,” said Lee. Over the next few months he became less dependent on medication and on September 11 underwent a spinal cord stimulator procedure. “I went from using a wheelchair, to a walker, to a cane and then to nothing,” he said. For him the walk provided evidence to himself that he could walk. “That walk was telling me I had to walk.” said Lee. “For anyone in pain and dependent on pain medication I would tell them to seek interventional pain management help and be committed to whatever the doctor asked them to do,” said Lee. “Dr. Kerschner could not possibly know what she does for people in pain,” he said. “To be pain free through the help she provides is amazing.” The pain walk was sponsored and supported by MedTronic, M.E.K. Consultants, Dr. Kendall Hansen, Mangat, Kuy and Hopfizel Plastic Surgery, Boston Scientific, and Rubenstein Public Relations in Paducah, KY. The funds raised went to the Brown County General Hospital Foundation to support the needs of pain patients. For a video on spinal cord stimulation or a brochure on any other pain topic, please call (937) 378-7676.

 

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