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Alpha-Stim® Patient Testimonials
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“I have one piece of equipment that can be utilized anytime
of the day or night and provides me with constant patient care that
can be unmatched by any before it, it’s called the Alpha-Stim 100.”
- Lee McIntosh
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I am writing to thank you for your
generosity and thoughtfulness. When we first met in regards to my company
The Canadian Journal of Clinical Medicine-Medical Scope Monthly we discussed
many aspects of medicine and the journal itself. Over the course of 3 months
we spoke frequently via telephone discussing business matters regarding your
company and mine. Your openness, sincerity and relaxed manner allowed me the
opportunity to speak with you personally about my health and the numerous
difficulties I was experiencing on a daily basis. Where most individuals
would merely listen and offer the occasional advice you took it upon
yourself to send me the Alpha-Stim 100. I would like to take this
opportunity to share with you my past, present and the goals of the future,
for this seems fitting due to your generosity and kindness.
As you know, on August 11th, 1993 I underwent a surgical procedure known as
Anterior Sphincter Muscle Repair. I underwent this surgery to correct bowel
incontinence due to childbirth in 1990. In order for the surgeon to perform
this surgery an incision is made between the vagina and the anus. The
surgeon then cuts throughout the soft tissue, muscosa, and muscle laying it
back in order to reach the anterior sphincter muscle. This surgery is so
painful that the surgeon uses two anesthesias, one being general and the
other being an epidural (spinal).
For the first 24 hours after this procedure was performed, I was literally
unaware of my surroundings. Although several nurses informed me of episodes
where I would wake from a drug induced sleep and suddenly begin crying and
screaming out in pain and as sudden as this would come on, I would loose
consciences yet again...
On the second post-op day, two nurses helped me out of my bed. The intensity
of the pain was unbelievable. I cried for the first time in my life from the
soul, breathing became labored, and sweat poured from me as I made the
descent from the bed to the floor, from the edge of the bed to the doorway
and with much coaxing and encouragement the nurses held me upright and
practically carried me to the sitz bath across the hall. The sitz bath would
be a blessing to me I was told. The pain would be less intense, the constant
ache would be alleviated for a time, and oh how I would enjoy this. I
personally knew the sitz bath. I knew of the benefits after all, I have
given birth to four children, the first in 1982, second 1990, third 1991 and
finally the fourth in 1992. I was also very familiar with the benefits from
a medical stand point as I was at that time a nurse for 8 years.
It took several minutes for me to lower myself into the sitz bath. The pain
became horrendous and a high pitch scream sounded somewhere off in the
distance as I placed my bottom in the sitz. The sitz bath height (lower that
a normal seat) had proved too much, for the incision from the outside-in, or
the inside-out blew wide open either way I now no longer had a perineum.
Blood came gushing out of me in copious amounts; the nurses were pushing
alarm buttons and hollering, everyone it seemed was moving in a fast forward
motion...except for me. I had known I was in hell when I tried to get off
the bed to come to this bath, and instead of backing up and leaving Satan's
domain, I had gone into the center and could not find my way out, I did what
anyone would do in my situation, I decided to leave my body. It was some
time after that when I opened my eyes to find several medical personnel
crammed into the stiz stall. A nurse and intern were holding me in the
sitting position. I heard words that at first seemed to be that of a foreign
language, it took several minutes to comprehend what was being said to me.
It appeared that due to a shortage of wheel chairs I was to walking back to
my room aided by several people and what they needed was my assistance.
While the intern began repeating this information to me I found myself
staring down between my legs and watched as my blood flowed freely and
quickly out down the sides of the sitz commode and onto the floor. This just
wasn't real I told myself. This is a nightmare, I'll wake any minute and
I'll be in bed, no commotion, no blood, no intense pain. I had convinced
myself of this and decided that because it was a bad dream, a very bad
dream, I could do whatever I wanted, after all, it wasn't real, I'd wake up.
I'll humor them, and so I decided that I'd go along with the speakers of the
dream. With their aide and my count of three I stood. Again, I hear this
scream off in the distance, who ever was making this noise I surmised, must
surely know the hell in which I am in as well. Then came my first step, and
intense pain beyond my wildest dreams, and the sound, that unmistakably
agony filled scream came yet again from far off in the distance. There we
all stood, rooted to one spot, it was the look on the faces of the nurses in
front of me that told me the scream off in the distance that I had heard
belonged to me. A nurse I had worked with for several years began to weep
uncontrollably and was removed from the room. The journey from the sitz bath
to my final destination took 1 hour. It was exactly 40 feet in distance.
When we reached the doorway of my hospital room I begged for a reprival. We
stayed in that spot for a very short time. I turned my head to look for the
child that sang a song down the corridor. A small child was walking down the
hall towards me singing, I am gonna see Daddy, oh how happy I'll be, she
sang this repeatedly. She was carrying flowers for her dad. Our eyes met, I
felt myself smile, and instead of smiling she stood still and stared, her
mother quickly picked her wee child up and went into her husband’s room. It
was at this point the intern and nurses encouraged me to continue the
journey back to bed. As I turned around I lowered my head only to witness
what the beautiful child was seeing, my gown, my body, the floor where I
stood was covered in blood. A nurse was working diligently behind the group
of us to mop the blood off the floor. In the days, weeks, months and years
to follow I would cry thousands of tears, entertain the thought of death,
and think of that wee girl with the flowers for her Daddy and what a shock
it must have been for her.
I was wrong about something else too. I had yet to reach the middle of
Satan's domain that would come in the days and years ahead. Unbeknownst to
me at the time, I was about to embark on a trip that would alter my life, my
children's life and in return I would learn to adapt to severe chronic pain
throughout my body, muscle spasms so severe I have coined the term "Muscle
Seizures" since these were no ordinary muscle spasms I would experience in
various parts of my body, dysfunctional uterine bleeding, migraine like
headaches, infections in the kidneys, the bladder, and elsewhere plague me,
limited range of motion, chronic fatigue syndrome and be subject to bowel
incontinence of great proportions, bladder incontinence, nerve damage,
fibromyalgia and the list goes on. I would even learn how to sit different
ways during my recovery. For the first 6 months I could sit in a certain
manner and when self granulation would make progress I would find myself
relearning the fine art of "TO SIT", this continues to present day. I would
also learn to accept those things that I took for granted in life, like
picking up one of my children, sitting on the floor, squatting, riding a
bike, swimming, downhill skiing, mowing the lawn, washing my floor,
vacuuming, doing the dishes, taking the steps running, and I would say
good-bye to my favorite sport of weightlifting and any other sports for that
matter. Walking would become a task that proved many times to be
unobtainable since the pain would become unbearable. What hurts me the most
is the fact that I am a single mom of four beautiful children. When I
arrived home after being hospitalized for over a month, my two youngest were
in diapers, homecare nurses and aides would potty train them, pick them up
and hug them, swing them high in the air and all I could do in those
instances was sit and watch. Many nights I have cried from the soul and
prayed to GOD to hear my prayers and beg him to shed light into my hell,
open the door and let me out. Then I would weep uncontrollably because even
GOD seemed to not be able to hear me. Was I too far into the depths of
Satan's torture chamber for anyone to hear? Would my voice go unnoticed for
all eternity? I have throughout the last five years thought of ending it
all. But for the logical me, this is a coward’s paradise, and being a single
mom of four children I had no business being a coward. I turned to a
Christian friend during fellowship one afternoon and wept uncontrollably and
for the most part I was incoherent. But, the Lord had chosen this person to
remind me the "He does not always give us what we want but rather what we
need." At the time I remember asking why I would need to feel such intense
pain, and pure unadulterated hell on a daily basis. Her answer was "I know
not why He does what He does, rather I accept and learn to adapt." LEARN TO
ADAPT.
When I met you Dan, it was as I said due to business matters not personal.
Our business relationship soon turned to friendship as the calls were
exchanged back and forth. At this time, I had been through biofeedback
trying to reteach the bowels to function properly and thusly limit the bowel
incontinence that plagued me. I had been to see over one hundred
practitioners of which would accept the initial appointment, learn of the
damage to my body internally and externally and after the examination would
bolt out of the patient room always saying the same thing, "yours is a case
that is truly horrendous, unbelievable and complicated and very
interesting.. but I must say this is defiantly out of my league, I must
therefore turn down your request to have me as your physician and refer you
back to your family physician." Then came you Dan and your remarkable
Alpha-Stim 100. You sent the Alpha-Stim 100 directly to my office. At the
time of receiving it, I had been walking one block. It took me two years to
be able to handle that one block. My homecare assistant would then help me
get into my wheelchair and return me home. I was proud of my work. After
all, I was doing what most would dare not to attempt. To you, the reader, it
seems inconceivable that it would take a person two years to walk one block.
But, to me I might as well have climbed a mountain.
That first day was to prove to be a turning point in my life. I read and
re-read the instruction booklet, and placed the electrodes in the
appropriate places and began the journey home. For four months I felt little
difference and often consulted with you in regards to the method in which I
was using it. You encouraged me to continue on, for there was a lot of
damage and my body needed time to adjust. One Saturday morning, six months
after being treatment with the Alpha-Stim 100, I ventured out do my one
block walk and found myself doing four instead!!!! I still required the
wheelchair to get home. But imagine 3 1/2 years after the fact I was doing
four blocks!!!! I use the Alpha-Stim 100 to control the fibromyalgia from
chronic muscle pain to migraines. I also found that by using the Alpha-Stim
100 I can control the sciatica pain I experience in my lower back and legs.
This compact machine enabled me to walk four blocks, take the stairs three
times a day instead of once a day, either prevent a migraine headache from
occurring or at the very least lessen the pain. Dan, I thank you each and
every day for having had the insight to take the journey into the unknown,
to forgo pleasure and endure long hours of research and development and
above all to be persistent in the pursuit of developing a unique and
versatile piece of equipment that an individual can carry with them where
ever their day takes them. Your determination and insight have changed by
life dramatically. In the year 1997 I will undergo numerous surgical
procedures. At the time that I write this letter to you I have undergone
knee surgery to remove bone chips and cartilage from past sports. On April
16th, 1997, I underwent open abdominal surgery to repair the bladder,
urethra, and to alleviate the dysfunctional uterine bleeding. I am now
preparing for the next surgical procedures, colostomy, anterior sphincter
repair #2, neurological repairs, plastic surgery (minimum of 6 it is
currently being estimated to rebuild the perineum) and finally to remove the
colostomy to see if the second anterior sphincter muscle repair worked. The
surgical procedures mentioned will take place over 1997 and into 1998. I
have 11 practitioners working to rebuild me, all of which are surgeons in
different specialty areas of medicine. I have one piece of equipment that
can be utilized anytime of the day or night and provides me with constant
patient care that can be unmatched by any before it, it’s called the
Alpha-Stim 100. On behalf of all patients and medical personnel I thank you
for the endless research and dedication you have shown in the past and
continue to show presently.
To those of you who read this letter I wish you well in all that you do. It
is my sincere hope that you too feel the relief and success that I have
experienced in my daily life since I met Dr. Dan Kirsch and begun using his
invention, the Alpha-Stim 100. Let the light shine into your world. Provide
yourself with a peace of the mind; utilize the Alpha-Stim 100. And always
remember that it takes time for your body to adjust and adapt. To you Dan, I
thank you and may all that you do be as successful as your Alpha-Stim 100.
Best wishes to you, your wife, and the patients to come.
Lee McIntosh
CEO/Editorial Director
Canadian Journal of Clinical Medicine
This material is reproduced with the permission of
Electromedical Products International, Inc. © 2006
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