(May 1, 2007)

In a special report that we began Monday night, we told you about one local doctor's quest to find a cure for diabetes. In the process, he's created and patented an alternative treatment similar to accupuncture that can relieve certain kinds of intense pain.

She's talkative, polite, a 16 year old southern bell from Mississipi. And Candice Baker is suffering from RSDS or Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy Syndrome.

What happened to candace baker was a triggered flare up, a terrible side effect of the chronic pain disease. "I was at school and somebody was just scuffling, and someone just hit me in the back so right then, I just felt a tingling down my spine, and I knew something had happened," says Baker.

Baker says sometimes it feels as if she is being stung by insects, "actually I have had those sensations, like wasps are like stinging my foot all the time"

14 year old Marisa Williamson, from Illinois is also an RSDS patient, a patient of Dr. Donald Rhodes, a local podiatrist in Corpus Christi, who treats the disease in an unconventional way.

"What it does, is by stimulating acupuncture points, acupuncture pressure points, reflexology points, as well as free nerve endings, and nerve trunks, it stimulates these guys with what's missing in your body," says Dr. Rhodes.

Here is how it works, electroids hooked up to strategic nerves in the feet, or hands send electrical impules up nerves to the place in the back that controls the sympathetic nervous system. The nerve system that makes your body do things you don't think about.

Dr. Rhodes treats a variety of patients with a variety ailments, including Freddy Powers, a colorful song writter from Austin who comes to Corpus Christi for treatement for Parkinson's Disease.

Freddy still plays chords, in fact just toured with his friends' Merle Haggard and Willie Nelson on their "Last of the Breed" tour.

Dr. Rhodes is going to be conducting a medical study involving that new machine starting this fall and you or someone you know may be interested in taking part.

They're looking for diabetic patients, who are concerned about amputation, burning or stinging in their feet, bone damage, kidney problems or who have trouble sleeping.

If you're interested contact the Coastal Bend Chronic Pain Center at 992-9432.