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Being in a wheelchair has never slowed down Jon Forbes. But for the first 14 years after his spinal cord injury, Forbes says something else nearly broke his will to live. It was pain - electric shocks of pain - in areas of his body that were paralyzed. "It was horrible. Excruciating. And it never stopped. You wake up, it's there. All day, it's there. You go to bed, it's there. "
尽管坐在轮椅上，但乔恩·福布斯从未因此而放慢自己的脚步。不过，在刚刚遭受脊髓损伤的头14年，福布斯表示，有个东西差点磨灭了他的生存意志。那就是疼痛——触电般的疼痛——蹂躏着全身已经瘫痪的地方。"真的特别可怕，就是那种非人的痛苦，它一刻不停歇地折磨着我。睁开眼就疼，一整天都在疼，睡觉的时候还是在疼。"
In a cruel paradox, Forbes says that the pain felt like it came from areas of his body that no longer had normal sensation.
而既残忍又矛盾的一点是，福布斯说，自己的疼痛似乎就来自于身体已经麻痹的部分。
"I had tried pretty much every kind of drug, tried exercise, tried you name it. Anything and everything to try and get this pain to stop. And it wouldn’t. And I was working at an investment bank and decided that was it. Quit my job, and decided, this was going to be the end, I just couldn't take it."
"我几乎尝遍了所有能吃的药，还试过锻炼，所有你能想到的我都做过了。而我所做的这一切，都只是为了能让疼痛停止在我身上继续肆虐。可最终还是失败了。当时我还在一家投行工作，然后决定就这样吧，辞掉工作，等待大限来到，我真的是扛不住了。"
Then Forbes learned about a Denver neurosurgeon who uses spinal surgery to stop so-called "suicidal pain."
不过之后，福布斯听说丹佛有一位神经外科医生，他可以利用脊椎手术来解除这种所谓"自杀性的疼痛"。
"Patients, when they ultimately come to me, I'm kind of a last resort."
"当病人最终决定来找我的时候，我基本上就算是他们能抓住的最后一根稻草了。"
Scott Falci is the chief neurosurgical consultant at Denver's Craig Hospital, which specializes in spinal cord injury rehabilitation. Falci says patients often come to Craig after other pain therapies are failed with some doctors saying the pain is all in their head.
丹佛有家克雷格医院，Scott Falci就是医院的首席神经外科医生，专门研究脊柱损伤的康复治疗。Falci称，一些医生会告诉这类病人，他们所感觉到的疼痛都是自己想象出来的，于是疼痛治疗失败之后，他们就辗转来到了克雷格医院。
"Many of our patients are told that this could be a psychological problem or a psychiatric problem...... "
"来我们这里的很多病人早前都被告知，他们之所以一直感到疼痛，可能是出现了心理或者精神问题......"
But he says it's mainly a spinal cord problem.
但Falci却说主要是病人的脊柱出现了问题。
To resolve it, Falci's operating team opens up the backbone to reveal this final cord, deliver tiny areas of electrical hyperactivity above this spinal cord injury.
为了解决这个问题，Falci团队在脊柱受损伤的地方将其切开，露出最后的这根神经，并找到向外传递电活动的区域。
Using heat, Falci kills those hot spots. And one is previously even thought impossible to recover. He also finds and kills hot spots below the spinal injury. Falci calls this the most effective way to eliminate extreme neuropathic pain.
Falci利用高温使这些易突变部位失活，而其中有一处之前都被诊断无康复可能。他还在脊柱创面下找到了一些易突变部位，并用同样的方式进行处理。Falci称，这是目前消除极度神经性疼痛最有效的办法。
"Eight-five percent of the time, we can get rid of sharps, burns, electricals, stabs."
"85%的时候，我们都无需用到手术刀、烧灼、电击或者是戳刺伤口。"
Falci says this can be life-changing. It was for Jon Forbes who got this surgery two years ago.
Falci表示这真的可以改变一个人的人生。对于两年前接受了这项手术的乔恩.福布斯来说，事实的确如此。
"I'm a pretty happy person these days. "Just two months after the operation, Forbes landed a new job — as the deputy treasurer for the state of Colorado. "I'm not 100% without pain, but I can live, and I want to live, which is . . . you know, thank God for saving my life, Dr. Falci, you know."
"手术完成后的这段时间，我觉得自己特别幸福。"手术后刚刚两个月，福布斯就找到了一份新工作——科罗拉多州的副财长。"虽然还会有点疼，不过我现在能活下来了，而且还有了活下去的希望，这真是...感谢上帝，感谢Falci医生拯救了我。"
Falci's work makes him confident there's more to discover about how the human body deals with injury and pain.
Falci现在所做的工作让他更加自信，而关于人体如何处理伤害和疼痛，如今还有很多东西有待发掘。
