Stimulating My Bone: Part 1

First things first, CONGRATULATIONS to all those that raced this weekend!!! From Portland to Denver, Chi-town to NYC, a whole lot of awesome happened over the weekend and I am so proud of all my runnerds peeps who braved the elements, overcame missed ferry's and late starts, but still managed to rock out some PR's and/or finished their first marathons!

Now on to your regularly scheduled post...

So I know you've all been jealous about my bone stimulator, I can tell from all the inappropriate comments you've been leaving whenever it's mentioned. I mean, why wouldn't you want to say you've stimulated yourself today? Heh! But in all seriousness, I hope that none of you ever, EVER, EVER find yourself in need of a bone stimulator. EVER! Dealing with this injury the last 7 months has been the biggest pain in the @ss ever and I would never wish it on anyone.

But should one of you ever find yourself in this position, or are just curious about it in general, I thought I'd share what it's all about. First up, some official mumbo-jumbo about it, followed by my own thoughts:

"The OL1000 utilizes state-of-the-art combined magnetic field (CMF) technology, which produces low-energy signals that stimulate the body's natural healing process and enhance the healing of long-bone nonunion fractures."

"Indication for Use: Noninvasive treatment of an established nonunion acquired secondary to trauma, excluding vertebrae and all flat bones. A nonunion is considered to be established when the fracture site shows no visibly progressive signs of healing. This treatment has been shown in pre-clinical studies to help the body's own healing process begin working. Clinical studies have shown an increased chance of healing of 60.7% in patients with nonunions that averaged 29.3 months from injury. Registry data on over 2300 patients reports a heal rate of 75.1%"

My Thoughts: As you all know, I went through a lot to get this, nevermind how long I'd been injured before this was even suggested as a measure to take. Once I was finally approved the rep walked me through the process of use and made it clear that I would not notice any immediate results and that I should wait until my doctor cleared me to attempt running again. My next appointment with the surgeon isn't until December so I have a ways to go before I will know if this has actually improved my situation or not. At this point I can only hope and pray, with every ounce of my being, that it will.

That said, in the week that I've used it, as promised, I have felt absolutely no difference. Prior to starting treatment I would inevitably have pain at some point throughout my day and this has continued to be the trend. I will say that rather than it being sporadic it has become a regular occurrence in the few minutes leading up to treatment. This is a new development and it kinda weirds me out considering I don't actually feel anything while I'm using it. Speaking of, you probably want to know how it's used and all that jazz right? Well, I put my leg in that contraption, velcro it in place, making sure to center the injury site within, and then I press and hold down the middle button on the accompanying control unit until it beeps. That's it. After it beeps it begins a 30 minute countdown, during which time I typically check my email, FB, play Words with Friends, pin on Pinterest, nap, etc... When the timer is up, it beeps again and this smiley face appears:

Stimulation complete.

Spike and I are now in the habit of yelling "SMILEY FACE!!!" when it beeps, much to our own amusement, and that is it. The display goes blank and I cannot use it again for 24 hours.

(Funny story about the first time I used it; The rep told me to just press the button, failing to mention holding down until it beeps, so the first time I "started" it, or so I thought, no countdown appeared and having failed to actually read the directions, I didn't know any better that it should have. When 30 minutes were up I stared and waited for the smiley face to appear for a solid minute before I decided to read the instructions and learn the right way to do it. Total FAIL.)

While it's doing whatever it does I do not feel anything. at. all. I wish I did because then I'd feel more confident that it was actually doing something but I just gotta trust that something that took so long to get approved by insurance and retails for $4,000 must get the job done. (It also helps to have gotten so many messages from people that have used one or known someone who has used one successfully and also to read posts like this and this with lots of useful information about their own experiences.)

**Important Note for Anyone Thinking About Purchasing A Used Device**

While researching used units on websites like ebay, I came across many of this same unit. I would like to point out that many of these sellers misrepresented how many charges it had left by showing the start screen that displays two numbers such as "042/103." Be warned that this means it has been used 42 times in the last 103 days since it's been activated, NOT that there have only been 42 charges used with 103 charges left. When I learned about this little detail I was SOOO relieved the insurance had come through and I had gotten a brand new unit. While these units do have a charge life of about 9 months, or 270 charges, the count down begins the day you have your first treatment. If I were to sell this after my December appointment, my unit would have 204 potential charges left on it as I would have already cycled through 66 days of charges. If I were to sell this next July with those same 66 days of charges it would only have 30 days of charges left, since it's ninth month of charge life would end within 30 days. Example: The screen would say "066/240." (i.e. 66 charges in the last 240 days since activation, NOT 66 used out of 240)

So there you have it, a quick, not nearly as interesting as I'm sure you thought it would be, update on the bone stimulator. I'll be sure to revisit this subject again when more time has passed and I've started noticing some progress. Thanks again for all your continued support and kind words through all of this, you guys are the best!