(Originally published Nov/Dec 2018)
A Miracle
By Tred Barta
Throughout the years I have witnessed more men and women give up big-game fishing and big-game hunting. Chronic pain is so often the cause, with old sports injuries often the problem.
In my case I have battled through paralysis and so many other problems that even I am amazed that I still am as active as I am. What is incredible to me that it is the chronic pain in my right pinky and hand that has ended up being my greatest nemesis. First there was acupuncture, then massage, physical therapy, then there were pills – methadone, oxycodone, morphine – none of that worked. So I tried five different surgeries to my hand, all major, all of them did not work. In fact, they made things worse.
What I am talking about here is Tred Barta’s journey. What about people with bad knees or chronic back pain etc. etc. etc. hard to go on and elk hunt; it’s also hard to go to the canyon in search of bigeye tuna and blue marlin.
Everyone probably is asking what does any pain article possibly have to do with the Big Game Fishing Journal? Well, quite simply, there are many things in life that you can get through; chronic pain is not one of them. It is a show-stopper, that is why I would like to share with you exactly what I’m trying right now to turn my outdoor career around by stopping the pain. So listen up everyone, because it appears to be working for me and that is something of a small miracle in itself.
Here is the drill and the method that could return you to the woods and water; it’s called Boston Scientific Precision Spectrum and I want to explain it in layman’s terms because that’s the way I learned.
Sandy and I went to Coastal Carolina Pain Management, wherein we learned about the newest approach in pain management. With me lying on my stomach, the doctor made approximately a quarter of an inch incision in the middle of my back. I intravenously received a sedative and after that I received a numbing agent up and down my spine.
Four incredibly thin let’s call them “wires” were put up my spine to the base of my neck in the epidural section of the backbone. The four leads were attached to a spinal cord stimulator, which during the trial section is taped and secured in the middle of my back. I am now in my first day of the trial, and they will remain in and on my body for one week, then it will be removed.
If it is proved to be a success, approximately 6 to 8 weeks later the operation take place again and be permanent; the spinal cord stimulator will remain in my body for approximately 12 years. I carry with me a device about the size of the very small cell phone that emits an electronic signal. That signal replaces a feeling of pain with a somewhat-soothing electrical shock.
It doesn’t feel like a shock, but that’s actually what it is. What’s amazing is that the first day in use, 85 percent of the pain is gone and the 15 percent that’s left is nowhere as severe as before. It’s an absolute miracle.
The handheld device can speed up shockwaves so fast that the human brain cannot even pick them up. On the scale of zero to 100 percent I am using about 8 percent of what is available it is different for every person and different for every type chronic pain.
I, Capt. Tred Barta, am telling you that on the first day, chronic pain has been reduced by 90 percent. I’m also telling you that my dependence on methadone should go to zero which means all kind of digestive problems I have with constipation, nausea, gas, should also be brought back to normal. This device and procedure appears to be a miracle of technology.
If this weeklong trial does not prove successful, the device and leads can be removed and nothing done, but if it does work – and it appears to me that it will work – I will soon be doing things in the mountains and in and on the continental shelf that were prohibited before.
I am enclosing pictures of some of what has been done to me for the trial phase 1; don’t let them scare you. I’m supposed to keep it dry, to not lift my hands above my head and not lift anything over the weight of 1 gallon of milk.
Anyone who has severe chronic pain knows how it just eats away at you and those around you so when people ask what this article has to do with the Big Game Fishing Journal, in some ways it has everything to do with it, because it can return you to the bluewater, doing what you love to do, and that’s fish.
Go to www.bostonscientific.com for technical information on what I’m talking about.
Till next tide,
Tred’n Water
Capt. Tred Barta
