Relief after years of pain

Jerry M. first started getting severe headaches after a softball injury. A second injury turned those intermittent headaches into a constant presence.

“Nothing would work, even the stuff they gave me at the hospital,” says M. “I just laid in bed for about two years.”

That changed when he met Jonathon Shaffer, MD, sports neurologist and interventional pain specialist at IU Health Bloomington, who suggested they try cryoneurolysis. Shaffer serves as the Neurotrauma Consultant to IU Athletics and the Medical Director of the IU Health Spine Program in Bloomington.

“Cryoneurolysis is an FDA-approved, focused cold therapy that we use to control acute and chronic pain by freezing or creating an ice ball around the nerve to help stop that nerve from sending pain signals,” says Shaffer. “It’s all outpatient and ambulatory…the procedure itself probably takes 15 to 20 minutes.”

M. says the constant headaches he’d been living with were gone two to three minutes after treatment.

“I went from doing absolutely nothing to being function,” says M. with a laugh. “I love IU Health and love Dr. Shaffer and his staff.”

Learn more about M.’s story in the video above.