inMotion Magazine

Living Healthy 21 “In addition to being effective, the beautiful thing about TMR is that there are low barriers to adoption – it requires little specialized equipment and can be performed in university hospitals, in military medical settings, and more,” Dumanian explains. “With greater awareness and a little training, surgeons who treat amputees can ramp this up across the healthcare system, and they are doing so already.” One of the study participants treated at Northwestern, Keith Philizaire, says he lived through years of anguish and pain medication to address severe PLP following the amputation of his leg. “If you can imagine, for two to three years it literally felt like my leg was being cut off, over and over again,” Philizaire says. “Now, about a year after having TMR, I’m pain-free and I’m no longer using any medications. I’m able to take my daughters to the park and the movies, and I even rode a bike with my prosthetic leg.” Another study participant, Sarah Dean, is a registered nurse who lost her hand following a bus accident in Bolivia, where she was providing medical care for underserved communities. “After my amputation, I experienced intense phantom limb pain and neuropathic pain – on a pain scale of one to 10, I was at a 20. It was like torture,” Dean says. “After undergoing TMR, I still had some pain at first but I understood it was part of the healing process. Thankfully, after about four or five months it was manageable enough for me to go back to work. Now, I am proud to say that I am completely off all pain medications, I’ve earned my master’s degree and have been working full-time at a hospital in the suburban Chicago area.” Perhaps the most well-known TMR patient is Joe Pleban, who received international attention in 2014 when he tattooed “Please cut here” on his left ankle and memorialized his limb’s adventures on Facebook before amputation. Although he was not a study participant, he cites his TMR surgery performed by Dumanian as critical to reclaiming his active lifestyle. “For me, TMR has been an amazing out from chronic pain,” Pleban says. “Since the procedure, I’ve been able to start running, snowboarding, playing rugby, and it’s just continued to go up from there. I started competing in World Para Snowboarding last season, which allowed me to travel around the world. Being a professional snowboarder has been a dream of mine since I was a little kid, and now I’m living that dream.” Residual limb pain is primarily caused by terminal neuromas, which are cut nerve endings encased in scars. Sarah Dean Keith Philizaire

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