"Janet Jay is a cyborg. No shes not RoboCop or Darth Vader. But she shares a similarity with those characters Her alltoohuman body has been upgraded with a machine. A nextgeneration implant deep in Jays back stimulates her spinal cord overriding her bodys pain signals to give her some relief from the back pain that has plagued her for years. In an article https on Popular Sciences website Jay writes about her experience with pain and the nextgeneration way shes finding relief. She is hardly alone in her suffering. According to the National Center for Health Statistics httpsnccih.nih.govnewspress an estimated . million Americans or . percent of U.S. adults experience chronic pain. It can interfere with work and home life and leave patients debilitated disabled and depressed. So it makes sense that Jay jumped at the chance to experience longterm pain relief with the help of a spinalcord stimulator. Jay lays out the hows and whys of spinal stimulation and she paints a vivid picture of a life in agony a journey that has included skeptical doctors plenty of painkillers and unanswered questions about the future. She also describes her path to spinal stimulation how the device works with the body to shortcircuit pain and the many roadblocks to relief that patients face. Even for me the battle is not over Jay writes. Since this surgery Ive actually had another disc herniate complicating everything. My spine isnt cured and I still hurt all the time. But the pain is far more controlled and I can function much better at my current level of discomfort. As the human and financial costs of the opioid crisis rise spinal stimulation may become more popular even though its expensive. Jay says she was lucky Her insurance covered much of the sixfigure bill for the procedure."