dear gracie, we hardly knew ye!

Well, zut, alors!  We had ourselves a real, live CALMARE patient cured/radically improved of her CRPS by the TENS unit "equivalent" (that's the sum of its claims to the FDA).  I thought we were finally going to have legitimate documentation of pre- and post- limb involved conditions.

Such a person replied to our riveting post based on outrage that Dr. Michael Breen, ob/gyn of Texas, would begin a marketing pitch for Competitive Technologies, Inc CALMARE/Scrambler units by linking CRPS with suicide.  That's irresponsible by anyone.... despicable by a health care professional.  Anyway, the 39ish year old woman he labelled suicidal responded to the post, then suddenly snatched her tentative testimonials back an hour or so ago.

Gracie decided to call our investigations hate-mongering and removed all her comments.  Harrumph.

But God bless Blogger, because nothing is ever lost in Blogger World, no comment ever really removed!

This is our convivial comment exchange, reconstructed:


I am Gracie. My Facebook name is Gracie Gean. My maiden name is Gracie Bagosy. I have had wonderful success with Calmare Therapy! Have a question? Contact me! I will be happy to talk to you. 

me:  Have any evidence beyond a personal testimonial? Do you have pictures that pre-date your treatment to compare with a videotaped account of former suffering?

I'm thoroughly familiar with CALMARE and the claims made, and can assure you that you either did not have CRPS and were misdiagnosed, or that you had such a mild case that attaching you to several TENS units on burst mode would have been equally curative.

There are, of course, other possibilities, but I hesitate to mention them.

Thank you for your internet diagnosis. I am certain that it must be more accurate than every diagnosis made by my team of specialists over the last several years! Yes, I do have pictures of myself before and during treatment. 

me:  i will show you mine, if you will show me yours:  http://youtu.be/i2qrry7ltT0 

Mine are on Facebook. I do not publish on YouTube like you do. I did, however, watch yours. It looks terribly painful. I will be happy to connect with you privately and help you network with others and get support. 

me:  That's kind of you to offer. I'm in my eleventh year of living with CRPS. I was under the impression that you were helping to promote CALMARE, and that you'd, therefore, have material ready for people who need to learn what CRPS looks and feels like. May I feature your "before treatment" documentation here on the blog, and compare it with "after treatment" documentation? That would be helpful for people who need to learn about the syndrome. I have, as you did, a highly specialized team of doctors in a major metro area, so I'm well plugged in. But appreciate the offer. Now let's show/prove what CALMARE did for you! 

me:  Where can the public access them to verify your claims?

My story and pictures can be found on the CALMARE sites. I won't post them on these sites that only spew hate. In these pictures, you will see my face, my family, my friends...as well as my RSD limb.

me:  I don't spew hate. I make available real information, and fight against the emotional and financial manipulation of unethical medical professionals.

Please provide for us a link to a video that will show your pre and post CRPS limb. I would love to see the improvement.

Let us hope, friends, that Gracie realizes she could make a huge step in legitimizing CALMARE by providing pre-treatment documentation side-by-side with post-treatment results.

I won't give up on Gracie, not yet. Someone in all this CTTC / CALMARE-Scrambler Therapy mess needs to show us some evidence that goes beyond oral testimonials and emotional claims. Nerve conduction studies, triphasic bone scans, skin temp testing, fMRIs, pictures, SOMETHING!

C'mon back, Gracie!

ADDENDUM:  I've checked the aforementioned Facebook page, but not being a friend (all my hatefulness, you know!), could not see all her photos.  Those I did see showed NED.   I checked her interview with marketing savant wannabe "joeygiggles," and there were some irregularities noted versus previous interviews. But I'm not hateful enough to suggest that someone should be consistent or even consistently truthful.  She's joined up with a number of "high-profile" "RSD" / CRPS enterprises, as spokesperson, moderator, etcetera, all the better, I am guessing to spread the CALMARE story.

Gracie, today CTTC is down 24% at 0.1430.  Investors are savvy.  They, like the Weathermen, know which way the wind blows.

© 2013 L. Ryan