Patient & Family Testimonials
My name is Sara. A little over two months from now, I will be turning 30 and getting married. A little more than two years ago, I could barely plan ahead a few hours because of the almost constant debilitating pain I suffered.
I suffered from something called Reflex Sympathetic Nerve Dystrophy, which is a complex condition where the nerves are certain there is danger in a certain part of the body, sending all sorts of pain signals to the brain, even though there is no discernable injury to the body.
In my case, the condition started from a cut on a finger on my right hand, and long after that injury healed, my body was still processing pain that felt as if my arm were on fire all the time. Although this condition is becoming better known in the medical community, it’s very hard to treat effectively, because even if one therapy works for a while, the condition can circumvent the treatment and come back stronger than ever.
Before I found out about Dr. Donald Rhodes, I had consulted more than 20 doctors in California alone. They tried physical therapy, acupuncture, nerve blocks (one of which punctured my lungs), casting my right arm, biofeedback, neuro-feedback, chiropractic treatments, watsu water therapy, three different spinal cord stimulator implants, and five separate surgeries resulting from complications due to the stimulators.
Throughout all of this, I was on a seemingly endless stream of medications. Just the ones I remember include neurontin, vicodin, darvocet, oxycontin, effexor, trazadone, Demerol, morphine, and a Demerol patch I had to wear every day.
There were also innumerable trips to the emergency room every other week or so because my pain was so severe I needed a Demerol injection. Between the pain and the medication, I was like a zombie. It was very strange because in some ways I was so strung out from the medication and the pain that I felt disconnected to almost everything normal, barely able to take care of the smallest, most mundane aspects of my life and health care.
But because the pain was so severe, even though I was checked out emotionally a lot of the time, I was deeply connected to my pain, and completely unable to relax and feel any sense of comfort from all the treatments they were trying. The only solution my latest doctor could come up with was to increase my pain killers, despite the ridiculously high level of medication I was already on and the lack of relief it provided.
Had anyone looked at me during this time, they would have been completely puzzled about why I was so debilitated by pain. It was difficult explaining it to people. My family was unbelievably supportive, with my parents especially doing everything they could to help me. My fiancé, who was my boyfriend at the time, often had to take care of me as if I was a child. My mother became an expert on my condition, scouring the country for a miracle that would end my misery and give me my life back.
Little did I know it when my Mom and I packed off to Corpus Christi, Texas, but Dr. Rhodes was going to be my miracle. From the minute we arrived at his clinic, I knew there was something different about his practice from those of all the other doctors I had seen. It wasn’t necessarily that he was more skilled; in fact, I had seen some incredibly talented and sympathetic physicians over the years.
In part it was the obvious passion Dr. Rhodes had for treating the patients who came to him for help. He knew that for many of us he was our last hope, and he took seriously the despair of people in my position that feared they would never be free of pain. He told me right away that he thought he could help me. I was hardly optimistic, but I was willing to do whatever it took.
It was the middle of the summer in one of the hottest, most humid parts of the country. I couldn’t stand the air conditioning because the feel of the breeze moving over my skin was enough to push me over the edge. My poor mother endured three months of stifling heat with no air conditioning, placing me in warm baths and tending to me along with Dr. Rhodes and all of his assistants and nurses.
At the center of his treatment was an incredible intuition and intelligence, an unlimited well of personal compassion, and an innovative STS Dynatronic Machine, which was both non-invasive and non toxic to the patient. The first thing he told me was that he was going to have to wean me off of the painkillers I was on, explaining that unless I was off the medication that he could not treat the pain effectively.
He used the machine for part of this process, but a lot of it involved old-fashioned suffering as my body adjusted to the lack of medication and the increased pain levels in its absence. There were moments when I felt I couldn’t do it or that it wasn’t worth more suffering, even if it was short term.
Every time my resolve failed, Dr, Rhodes was there with the right thing to say and the understanding necessary to get me through to the next moment. He never flagged in his encouragement and support. He told me I could talk to him any time and that he would be available to me 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
There was no concern that was too small; he took everything I said and felt seriously, and when I wanted to quit, he gave me the strength and the desire to go on. The absolute conviction he had in his machine and in his therapy kept me going. Working with him was like stepping into the most secure, comforting space, where even though I was sometimes in misery, I became more and more certain that things would change, things would get better.
Truly, the hardest part of my treatment was getting all the pain medication out of my system. As this process wore on, though, I started having more and more moments of clarity and optimism. Dr. Rhodes was firm in his conviction that I had to get off the medication and unwavering in his belief that I would get better.
Dr. Rhodes treated me for three months. We had our ups and downs during that time, but by the time I was ready to return home to California, I was able to leave years of horrendous pain behind me, as well as an increasingly strong pessimism and a small duffle bag chock full of prescription medication.
I came home with so much more, including hope for a normal future, the ability to do innumerable small things that had seen monumental before, a small STS Dynatronic Machine to use on a daily basis, and a friend, mentor, and cheerleader for life in Dr. Rhodes.
I have been pain free for more than two years now. Each day I get farther away from that woman who was (barely) walking around in a drug induced stupor, totally unable to see past my haze of pain. Now I can go through days at a time without even thinking about those dark days, and even mixed in with those memories are all the moments of compassionate support Dr. Rhodes gave me.
I tried to thank him once for giving me my life back, and all he would say to me was “you always had it, but now it’s what you make of it.” You see, Dr, Rhodes doesn’t have the time to bask in anyone’s lavish praise, because he’s too busy devoting every minute of every day to giving his patients the gifts of his compassion and expertise, and ultimately, of their future.
As I said before, I have met many talented and dedicated doctors over the years, but Dr. Rhodes is truly in a class by himself, and to me he exemplifies everything that is most noble and most profound about medicine – he helps people in the most humble way so that they can reach their highest potential. I think of him sometimes in the midst of my wedding plans, marveling at the fact that my life is so normal now, and how wonderful, how extraordinary normal can be.
