The growing problem of opioid addiction has patients worried along with health experts.
Back pain is one of the main reasons patients need such powerful medicine, but there is a new option to battle that pain without drugs or surgery.
"I heard a little click in my back, so I thought maybe yes, something wrong," Muhammed Calsey said. "Next day, I couldn't get up from my bed."
Calsey has been battling back pain for years.
"I ended up in the ER," Calsey said. "They gave painkillers and everything, didn't work"
He tried physical therapy, acupuncture, a chiropractor and even surgery. The pain persisted until Dr. Gregory Wilson, a neurosurgeon at Invictus Healthcare System in Tulsa, suggested a new device.
"So, when we put these devices on the spinal cord or nerves in the vicinity, we stimulate that area and it covers up the pain very well," said Dr. Wilson.
He also says older models had batteries that had to be surgically implanted.
While they helped, they weren't MRI compatible and the patient needed another surgery when the battery wore out.
A brand new device, the stimwave freedom spinal cord stimulation system is wireless and put in with only a minor procedure.
"We just simply insert the needle," Wilson explains. "Get it in the right spot. Pass the leads in and pull the needle out."
Dr. Wilson says it won't work for everyone, but by screening his patients, 75% to 80% find relief.
"If this wears out, we just throw it in the trash and you get a new one," Wilson said. "There's no more surgery involved in it."
For Muhammed, the device has been a lifesaver, because he is now off the medicine, walks with his daughter and is back to work.
"It was like a dark come out to a light," Muhammed said. "It was a very happy moment."
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