Nurse thanks chronic pain team for helping to keep her working

Christina Peter, a 63-year-old nurse from Whitstable is able to continue helping people thanks to the help she received from the East Kent Hospitals chronic pain service.

Christina was born with talipes, or club foot as it’s more commonly known. She has had multiple surgeries which have helped with how she walks, but she now suffers from chronic pain due to nerve damage.

Christina said: “The pain got to the point where I needed to use a crutch to walk, and I would avoid walking as much as possible – which is very difficult to do when you’re a nurse on a ward!

“I was redeployed on health grounds 15 years ago to a less physically demanding job at the Kent and Canterbury Hospital to work as a phototherapy nurse, treating skin conditions with UVB light.

“I was given various treatments to help with the pain, such as nerve blocks and heating my nerves, but these were only short-term treatments, often only lasting six weeks, and so it wasn’t sustainable for me to continue with these on a long-term basis.

“Eventually, after trying everything else I was offered a spinal cord stimulator, and while it doesn’t get rid of my pain entirely, I no longer need to use a crutch at work and the pain is manageable.”

Tina Elliott, chronic pain lead said: “A spinal cord stimulator is fitted just under the skin of Chris’s back. There are wires connected to her nerves, that connect to a battery pack, which is about the size of a pace maker.

“She is given a remote handset which controls the level of stimulation to reduce her pain such as a light level of stimulation for when she’s sleeping, or steady levels of stimulation when she’s working’.

“It’s a fantastic bit of kit that is designed to be a permanent way to manage chronic nerve pain. She remains a patient in our service, and is able to contact us at any time with questions or if there are any issues so we see her regularly and are delighted with how much it’s helped her.”

Christina said: “If it wasn’t for this stimulator, I would have stopped working as a nurse. There’s no way I would have been able to continue. I have been a nurse for 44 years and to give it up early would be devastating for me.

“It’s always been a dream of mine to visit Egypt. Without the stimulator this would be totally outside my capabilities but now thanks to Tina, my doctors, and the chronic pain service, next month I will be going to Egypt to share the holiday of a lifetime with my daughter.”