Note: Dr Prager opened his new practice, California Pain Medicine, in Santa Monica several years ago and we followed him there.
As far as I'm concerned, no other pain doctor comes close to Dr. Prager. You can look up his impressive credentials, his education, professional alliances, his medical and surgical experience. I will relate my personal experience.
When I first saw Dr. Prager, I was laying in a reclining wheelchair, shaking in pain. I had a heating pad on my abdomen and ice packs all around my pelvis. I have a severe form of interstitial cystitis (which destroys the lining of the bladder) and pudendal neuralgia, for which there is no cure and no effective treatment. I had been ill for over 15 years, gradually declining until I was bedridden for the last three years. I could not walk, sit, or even stand. The pain was relentless, day and night, and I was at the end of my rope.
However, as Dr. Prager started talking, I began to feel a glimmer of hope. He really seemed to understand the kind of pain I was in, and my confidence grew as he outlined a plan that would possibly give me back my life. Out of all the doctors and specialists, and after all the failed treatments and surgeries -- Dr. Prager was the one who finally helped me.
It has been more than two years since I had the surgery that gave me back my life. In November of 2012, Dr. Prager implanted an intrathecal pain pump into my abdomen. It contains a mixture of three medications which drip slowly into my spinal fluid and, to put it simply, anesthetize (deaden) the pain signals. We knew it would work because a trial with the same medications a month earlier had been an astounding success. I remember SITTING without pain for the first time in 4-5 years, and WALKING, by myself, around the nurses station at least 7 times!
Today I am walking, laughing, and enjoying life. I can go places, eat at restaurants, see the latest movies. My husband and my sister, who were there during the darkest hours, cry tears of joy when they see me happy and doing things. My husband has been known to get misty-eyed simply from coming home from work and finding me in the kitchen cooking dinner.
