The physical therapist recommended several apparatuses that could be used at home to supplement office treatments. The home devices recommended were either expensive, ineffective, or both. I purchased the inexpensive over the door unit, which gave me no relief. Since the unit did not cycle, the maximum load recommended by the therapist was 18 pounds, which was ineffective. In addition, the harness which attached to my jaw began to cause temporomandibular joint (TMJ) symptoms after just 20 minutes of traction therapy. In order to increase to a higher load, the therapist said the load must be intermittently cycled.

Using my background as a Mechanical Engineer, I designed a device I could use at home that would attach to my head and cycle the load in the same manner as the Physical Therapist in-office unit (priced over $5,000). After using the device for the first time at home, I felt the same relief that I received from the in-office unit. The therapist gave me permission to use the home unit three times per day. Hoping to get a good nights sleep, I performed traction therapy prior to going to bed. The first night after using my device, I slept pain free until 5:00AM. The second night, I slept pain free and never again had a problem sleeping. The physical therapists at the office were amazed at my improvement within just two days. I then began to use the unit regularly and would augment the physical therapist visits with my home traction device. With continual use of my home device, along with office therapy, I was able to relieve all of the pain and regained 100% of my mobility. Considering the severity of my herniation, the therapist did not believe this relief was possible without surgery. In fact, he said he had never seen anyone recover from a disc herniation as severe as mine without surgery. He was amazed at the rate my device accelerated the healing and recovery time.