LEXINGTON, Ky. (LEX 18) — Geri Packwood is a mom of two from Anderson County. She loves to stay active with her kids and family. They play football, basketball, hike and more. She started seeing her doctor at UK HealthCare in 2019 after blowing out her left knee. She tore her ACL and meniscus. Two years later, she injured the right one.
She says, "I did the same thing and I had to do the guilty patient walk of shame again to tell him that he was indeed right, his repair was stellar. I didn't blow out the left knee but took care of the right knee."
Packwood has had a few leg and knee injuries and has continued seeing Dr. Austin Stone. After her most recent injury, she started having issues with her muscles and mobility. He started looking for ways to turn the muscle "back on". He looked into an electrical technology that's been around for some time but is usually used in neuromedicine.
Dr. Stone says, "They use this technology to help turn on the muscle when there's a brain muscle problem. So we know that this same phenomena that can happen following knee injuries or knee surgery and so when I talked about this technology, I was really enthusiastic about bringing it to our post operative patients to really help turn on their muscles after they had the knee injury."
Packwood is one of the first patients in the region to re-use this tech in this way. While her doctor says it’s not something all patients will need, he explains that it could be a useful tool to help even more people during their recovery.
"The thought behind using a device like this is functional neuro-muscular stimulation. So, it's not just that it's just gonna like shock you and turn on your muscle. What it is, is something that you can wear and use while you walk, while you perform activities."
The "Bioness" device has manual controls and is app-compatible. It works with the body and natural movements to help re-train the muscles on how to work correctly. She's able to wear this while she's trying to get back to her normal movements.
Packwood says, "That pain went away I was able to sleep better, it makes you a better mom when you're well rested. And ultimately continued to use the device and still use it for training and function today as I continue to work towards that full recovery."
She says the most rewarding part of this experience has been getting to spend more time with her kids, going to their activities and doing the things they all love. She says it means a lot to her kids.
"I just feel very blessed overall that the technology's here, that we have doctors in this area that were inquisitive enough to pursue the literature and find things that might help their population. As we're able to remain active and just do things just tools to give us that ability to recover, restore and regain full function to be the people that we wanna be with our families,” says Packwood.
Her progress is helping to pave a new path for people on the road to recovery.
