[catra121]

Someone else had posted about the Quell pain relief device a month of two back and I finally ordered mine. Thought I would start a thread on my experience with it and how things are going. I got it Monday and started using it last Tuesday.

First...a brief description of the device. It's a fairly small unit...rough guess of 3 inches by 4 inches. There is a strap you wear around your leg 2 inches below your knee that you slide the device into. Regardless of where your pain is...this is where you place the device. There is a long, slim electrode that also wraps around your leg that snaps into the device. Each electrode is supposed to last about 2 weeks and it come with 2. The device was $250.

Wearing it is interesting. I have very small legs but it wraps around pretty easily...very adjustable. I am wearing it on my "good" leg and not my rsd leg because that just seemed to make sense to me vs risking any aggravation to my rsd leg with the sensations from this thing. It basically feels the same to me as TENS stimulation. It runs for 60 mins, then is off for 60 mins, then on for 60 mins, etc for as long as you have it on. Before the first time you use it you calibrate the device. Once it is on you are able to adjust the intensity up or down. They recommend wearing it daily for at least a few hour a day.

Now...I responded well to TENS for pain relief but it became less effective once my rsd spread because I found TENS to be effective when you could surround the area of pain with the electrodes...which is harder to do when the pain becomes more generalized. I still use it if I have flare ups in a specific area where the pain is worse...but not as much as I used to. Only sharing this for a little background because if you've had a negative reaction to TENS therapy it might impact your reaction to this device which feels similar.

So far...almost a week into this...I have noticed a very slight decrease in pain. I had it off one day and the pain was noticeably worse...I also was in really bad pain the day before using it (what I thought was the start of a bad flare up) and it leveled out the next day while using the device. These may just be coincidence...but worth noting.

The biggest problem with the device seems to be a tendency for the elctrode to un snap from the device. This has happened to me several times and I only notice because I think its been a long time since I felt anything and sure enough...it's unsnapped. Mildly irritating...especially since I haven't been especially active lately due to a torn rotator cuff...but it doesn't cause any additional pain or anything when this happens.

That's the other thing to note...I've been off work the past few weeks so I'm not on my feet as much...so my pain levels have been lower than normal anyway (except for that flare up I thought was starting that stopped suddenly).

Will keep everyone posted on how things go with this but so far I am cautiously optimistic...

[RSD ME]

hi catra. thanks for the info about quell. i hope that it continues to help even more with your rsd pain. hope the update will be a positive one. thanks again for sharing this info. take care.