Wearable Pain Relief with Quell

Review of Quell Wearable Pain Relief Device

Chronic pain is the story of my life. I’ve found ways to control the pain but that doesn’t mean it’s gone. I still have a lot of pain especially in my neck and shoulders. I often wake up in the morning with my neck all sorts of “out of wack” forcing me to take something or to get out of bed before I am ready just to reduce the pain or to distract myself from the pain. I’m always looking for tools that might help decrease my pain, so I was happy to review the Quell wearable pain relief device for my neck pain.

To be honest, before one of my blogger friends suggested that we talk to the makers of the Quell Pain Relief device about trying to do a campaign with Chronic Illness Bloggers, I had no idea it existed.

As I read through the website I stayed a bit on the skeptical side (because that’s where I live). There are a lot of products out there that make big claims about how they can relieve our pain. Having a friend who really wanted to give it a helped push me over the edge of willingness to give it a go.

When I received the Quell I was really happy with the step-by-step instructions that they provided for how to set it up. My initial thought was that it seemed a lot like a TENS unit in how it’s set up and in a way it is, but it’s much more. With a TENS unit you position the electrode pads on the areas where you hurt (or around the pain) and they stimulate you reducing the pain. The Quell device works similarly but instead of putting pads on or near the area of pain, you wear a much larger electrode pad around your calf.

Using the Quell Wearable Pain Relief Device

On the first wearing you set your foot flat on the floor and turn the device on. Each time you feel any stimulation you push a button. You do this several times to calibrate the device so that it knows what level to operate at.

The intensity will slowly increase over time, but overall you really shouldn’t feel it enough to cause any pain (if you feel it at all). The electrodes are meant to be placed on your calf in a way that allows the unit to stimulate major nerves that run through your entire body, changing the signals that are sent to your brain.

Does Quell work?

I began wearing the Quell device right away and I did notice that it reduced my pain. I didn’t really feel the stimulation initially but over time it would increase and sometimes I’d have to turn it down. I can’t even turn a TENS unit past 1 without it being too strong.

Where I noticed the greatest help was at night. As I mentioned earlier I often wake up with my neck in pain. When I would sleep with the Quell device I could wake up and turn it on (I’d leave it running on a light mode overnight). Shortly after I’d begin a session with the Quell the pain in my neck would subside enough to let me go back to sleep. Then I’d wake up at my normal time without pain. It was GREAT!

Quell definitely helped relieve the pain in my neck. This was huge for me and certainly enough reason to keep wearing it.

Continued Use of Quell Pain Relief Device

I did find that after a few weeks with the device, I began having a new pain that felt like it was in my bones. The Quell didn’t help this pain and actually made it worse. I don’t know that the Quell caused this new pain but the fact that it caused it to feel worse forced me to discontinue using the Quell.

I really do think the Quell is an amazing device. And, have several friends who have found great relief from their chronic pain as a result of wearing the device.

Quell has great customer service

When I began having this new pain I called their customer service line to get some help to see if perhaps I was doing something wrong. Or, maybe there was something different I could do that would allow the Quell to continue helping me. Quell’s customer service was amazing and bent over backwards to try to help. To me that says a lot about a company.

In talking to my contact at Quell they have found that the Quell helps people with chronic pain about 80% of the time. It did help me for a time, so even though I couldn’t wear it long-term, I do believe it’s a success.

Have you tried the Quell device? Have you even heard of it before today? I’d love to get your thoughts on this little device.