Restoring Life (and Tractors)

Heavy machinery, explosive missiles, and laboratory equipment. Sounds like the ingredients for an action movie, doesn’t it? But the truth is even more interesting. In this case, it is but a brief glimpse into the fascinating life of Cheri Haberle. Cheri is a Minnesota native who has had one of the most exceptional careers paths you have probably ever heard of.

Unfortunately, life also sent her down another, far less exciting path. In 2018, Cheri began a long and challenging battle with chronic pain that changed her life as she knew it. Along with her pain, she suffered fear, anxiety, and hopelessness that resulted in the most difficult period of her extraordinary life. But as bleak as it sounds, rest assured, this story has a happy ending!

Constructing an Incredible Career

Cheri Haberle was born and raised in St. Paul, Minnesota. After graduating from high school in 1974, she attended St. Paul Technical Vocational School (now called St. Paul College), where she studied auto mechanics.

Cheri put her skills to work at a few brief jobs after school before landing a position building roadmaking equipment for Caterpillar in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota. It was also here that she met her husband, who was working in maintenance at the time. They dated for a couple of years before happily marrying in 1991.

After leaving Caterpillar in 1993, Cheri decided to expand her education even further and earned a degree in automated machinery systems and robotics at Hennepin Tech. With this new skillset, she spent the next 10 years testing missiles for United Defense at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico. How many people can say that? Seriously.

Cheri then spent the final phase of her professional career testing and repairing air quality equipment in laboratories and other scientific environments.

Cheri had led an exciting career performing highly specialized tasks that only a select few can do. Along the way, she also picked up a few equally unique hobbies, including hiking, gardening, making stained glass, and restoring antique construction equipment in the special shop she and her husband set up in their backyard. She was living a good life that anyone would be proud of.

But chronic pain was about to throw a wrench in everything.

Breaking Down

As an early warning sign of the challenges to come, Cheri started to suffer from a moderate case of arthritis in 2016. Though not yet debilitating, it was painful enough to inhibit Cheri’s ability to do her job, and she was forced into an early retirement.

As disappointing as this was, Cheri was not the type to just sit and sulk about it. She used her newfound free time to pursue her hobbies and stay active. She was also intent on getting regular exercise and would achieve this by going on walks.

In 2018, during one of her walking excursions, she began feeling jolts of pain in her lower back. But Cheri usually didn’t go to the doctor unless something seemed pretty serious, so she just ignored it at first.

But the pain steadily got worse over the next few years until finally, Cheri had to stop going on her walks entirely. She finally decided to seek help for her pain, and after getting some x-rays and MRIs, she received the troubling news that she had rheumatoid arthritis that had spread to her back.

Cheri tried several different treatments that, unfortunately, did little to relieve her pain. She did not want to be on pain medications and was not a candidate for spinal fusion surgery due to the arthritis in her back. Already feeling short on options, Cheri also learned that she had seven degenerated discs in her spine, adding to the complexity of her case.

“At this point, the pain was so debilitating that I could only walk around with the help of a cane,” said Cheri. “My eyes would water it hurt so much. I even started carrying a stool around because I could only walk a few feet before needing to sit down.”

An emotional toll

But Cheri’s troubles did not end with just her physical pain. The limitations of her conditions began to take a serious emotional toll as well.

“I felt like I couldn’t do anything anymore,” recalls Cheri. “I would get up, get coffee, and sit back down. That was pretty much how my days would go. I couldn’t spend time with my granddaughters like I used to, and I had to rely on my husband to run all the errands and do all the housework, all while working his full-time job.

Perhaps most poignant, however, is how Cheri’s pain impacted her antique rebuilding hobby.

“Right before my pain started, my husband had bought me a 1927 Caterpillar two-ton tractor to restore. It was the most amazing and perfect gift, and I was so looking forward to working on it with him. But for six years, it just sat there, because I was in too much pain to do anything with it. It was really horrible, and I was starting to feel depressed.”

By this time, Cheri was beginning to feel that her situation had become hopeless.

Building Back

Cheri was not ready to give up yet, and in November of 2023, she made an appointment with Twin Cities Pain Clinic.

“I was a bit apprehensive at first,” said Cheri. “I had recently been to another local pain clinic looking for relief and it was a terrible experience. The doctor I saw didn’t understand what I had been through and made me feel judged. But I wasn’t going to leave a single stone unturned, so I gave Twin Cities Pain Clinic a chance.”

Luckily for Cheri, her pain clinic experience was very different this time around.

“I met with Erin at their Woodbury clinic, and it was amazing from the start,” Cheri exclaimed. “Erin really understood what I was going through. After a quick look at my chart, she complimented me for making her job easy and told me that I had given her everything she needed to proceed with treatment. She ordered an intrathecal pump implant that same day.”

On December 29, 2023, Cheri had a Medtronic intrathecal pump implanted by Dr. Anne Kokayeff.

“I vividly remember being in the recovery area after the procedure and I just started laughing,” recalls Cheri. “For the first time in over five years, I had no pain and all I could do was laugh! As my husband and I were walking out of the facility, I handed him my cane and asked him to carry it because I no longer needed it. I finally felt free”!

Restored

So, how has Cheri’s life been since her procedure? Well, you may want to prepare yourself because you are about to experience joy overload.

“I feel absolutely incredible,” Cheri excitedly proclaimed. “My life has made a complete 180-degree turnaround. I wake up every day with a smile on my face and people notice! I’m now going grocery shopping, cooking, and cleaning the house again. I have gotten back to making stained glass and gardening, and I am losing a lot of the weight that I gained when I was just sitting around in pain.”

Cheri’s rediscovered zeal for life has not gone unnoticed by her loved ones either.

“My husband has certainly noticed the change in me,” Cheri says proudly. “After my procedure, he said to me ‘there are those bright eyes I married again,’ and I nearly wept. He was so amazing throughout my ordeal and now I can’t wait for us to get back to living our lives together. We are actually making plans to visit Glacier National Park to go hiking, another thing I love that I had not been able to do for years.”

Cheri’s journey offers a vivid look into the challenges and fears faced by chronic pain sufferers. But it also provides an uplifting glimpse at the bliss and renewal that awaits those who seek help and don’t give up.

“For over five years, my life was barely worth living,” Cheri recalls somberly. “But now, there is hope and freedom. The world is open to me again, all because someone listened to and understood me, and truly wanted to help. I can never thank Erin, Dr. Kokayeff, and the entire team at Twin Cities Pain Clinic enough for what they have done for me.”

As for us? We just want Cheri to get back into her shop and restore that antique tractor. We would really like to see that!

The content and patient quotes in this testimonial story describe true personal experiences, reflecting real life stories from an individual who was treated at Twin Cities Pain Clinic. This story is for informational purposes only and should not be considered typical of all patients’ results. Individual experiences may vary, and Twin Cities Pain Clinic cannot guarantee specific outcomes. The subject of this story contributed of their own free will and was not provided any monetary renumeration in exchange for their participation. This testimonial story does not constitute medical advice and you should consult a healthcare professional for medical diagnoses and treatment recommendations.