If an untreatable medical condition kept you up at night, would you find a way to fix it on your own?
That's what Jefferson City inventor Norm Schroeder did a few years ago, and he's calling the solution the CP (Chronic Pain) Relief Wand.
Schroeder, a retired Boeing engineer, suffers from Restless Legs Syndrome (RLS), notable for its uncomfortable sensations in a person's limbs that can cause trouble sleeping. When Schroeder's RLS became unbearable - and medicine was not an option for him - he put his electrical knowledge to use and built upon years of medical research on using electrical currents to ease nerve symptoms.
What he came up with is a battery-powered device no bigger than your hand.
Schroeder's CP Relief Wand, approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, allows a patient to treat pain at the nerve level by pressing the device's flat surface down on skin and muscle, compressing the nerve. A pair of conductors run a low-voltage electrical current through the nerve, overloading its sensation receptors and preventing it from sending pain signals to the brain.
"I knew that I wanted to put a laminar current flow through the nerve after compressing the nerve. That's what I attempted to do," Schroeder said. "What I didn't know was what would happen after I did that."
His first prototype - assembled using materials such as wood and duct tape, varying quite a bit from the current plastic model - successfully curbed his RLS symptoms, giving him his first good night's sleep in a good while.
When he realized what his invention had to offer, Schroeder consulted longtime friend and attorney John Landwehr about navigating the patent process. Together, they assembled a team of investors including two physicians, forming the company Mid-America Medical Innovations LLC. Schroeder applied for a U.S. patent for the design in August 2013, and the patent was issued May 19 of this year.
The distance between the two conductors is part of Schroeder's patent. Determining that distance was a simple matter of trial and error.
"You know, it's amazing. The first unit I built was almost an optimal distance. It worked perfectly," he said. "Then I tried varying it, and I always got worse results."
It turns out, RLS is not the only medical issue Schroeder's invention is good for. The device has also tested well with chronic pain conditions such as fibromyalgia.
Treating chronic pain with the electrical current can, in some cases, allow people suffering from fibromyalgia to lighten their medicine load - which can make a big difference, considering some common fibromyalgia mediciations can cause severe drowsiness.
"There's a substantial group of people out there that are just in total distress. They take too much medicine; it is making them sick. They are very unhappy; they have terrible pain if they don't take medicine," Schroeder said. "Restless Legs Syndrome patients have these terrible problems sleeping if they don't take the medicine. If they don't take the medicine, then there's nothing they can do.
"This device will provide those people a whole new life."
Julie Ruengert of Walk Easy pedorthic clinic in Jefferson City is one of those people. Using the CP Relief Wand has allowed her to stop taking fibromyalgia medication entirely, and now she demonstrates the device's use for chronic pain patients at Walk Easy.
"I use it every morning and sometimes every night," Ruengert said. "It's for conditions that are not treatable in other ways."
The device's effects last 12-24 hours, and with a prescription, it is intended for at-home use.
Using the CP Relief Wand to alleviate back pain from fibromyalgia and herniated discs led one Walk Easy patient, Sally Riley, to realize she'd been walking around on a broken foot - a lesser pain she hadn't noticed because the other pain was so intense.
While the CP Relief Wand currently is distributed only at Walk Easy and at the Pain Prevention Rehabilitation Center in Chesterfield, Mid America Medical Innovations LLC is assembling the devices at Taylor Industries in Jefferson City and has the parts to make 5,000.
The company is conducting studies on the device in Jefferson City, as well as in India. Patents are pending in Europe, Canada and India. The CP Relief Wand team now is in the beginning stages of marketing the device to national distributors, which is how it would make its way to individual physicians and more widespread use.