DAVENPORT -
Ted Scully, 58, survived Army deployments to Iraq and Korea. But a stateside injury nearly brought him down for good.
"We were out doing a training exercise in the field, and I was thrown off the back of a vehicle and landed on my back," he recalled.
After successful spinal fusion surgery, the pain returned. Ted took prescribed opioids for nearly three years. It was a vicious cycle repeated by countless others.
"Instead of wanting to get better, cure the problem, they're addicted to drugs," Ted said. "So they'd rather have the drugs than actually have a cure."
When Ted first met Dr. Sanjay Sundar at ORA Orthopedics, his X-ray didn't reveal much.
"The picture may look perfect, but the pain is certainly there," said Dr. Sundar.
Dr. Sundar and Ted tried various solutions to ease the pain.
"He knew there was something better out there, or was hoping there was, to help him get off of that pain medication," said Dr. Sundar.
They found success with an outpatient procedure called Radiofrequency Ablation or RFA.
"We literally burn the nerve," Dr. Sundar explained. "It stops the ability of the nerve to send pain signals back up to the brain."
"You can do it without having to take any more medication," Ted added. "That's the most important thing."
These days, Ted checks in yearly with Dr. Sundar. They've repeated RFA about three times on his neck and back.
"For myself, Radiofrequency Ablation was just a Godsend," Ted said.
And, there's another reason he wants to feel better.
"The biggest thing, too, is I've got a granddaughter, Lucy Skye, two and a half, and I want to make sure I'm around and able to do things with her," he concluded.
That's a deployment he'll really enjoy.
