Our Story

In 2010, Lee was a rising ice hockey superstar enjoying college on a full scholarship in Lake Placid, New York. She was a happy and healthy teenager, dreaming of a future in the NHL, and one day, becoming a professional songwriter.
Then the pain started.

First, it was just one tooth that started to hurt after crunching on a piece of ice. She visited her dentist, but he couldn’t help or find the source of her pain. It soon escalated to her bottom, right jaw where a recurring stabbing sensation lasted for nearly 60 seconds each time. Then, her head was in constant pain and she was experiencing debilitating shocks.

Lee sought help from numerous other dentists and physicians and none of these medical experts could identify the cause. She was prescribed pain medication to ease the symptoms, but her results were marginal and short-lived. One night Lee woke up with excruciating, stabbing pain in her jaw. Instead of subsiding and resuming every few minutes as it had previously, this pain was constant and unbearable. She called her mom, Leslie, in Florida and she told her to go to the emergency room. Terrified, Leslie and her father fled to the nearest airport to find the first flight to New York.

The ER staff set her up with an IV and pumped her full of medication to help numb the pain while they performed X-rays, MRIs and cat scans, and every test came back clear. Hours passed. Doctors shuffled in and out of her room, each performing their own evaluations. Lee’s parents arrived just in time to hear the diagnosis.

Trigeminal Neuralgia. The ER doctors had limited experience treating this debilitating condition, so the best they could do was prescribe Oxycodone and send them on their way.

Lee and her parents flew back to Florida the next day and immediately saw a neurologist. They had two options, medication or brain surgery. The obvious choice was medication. Lee started on a low dose and had some success until she plateaued and needed a higher dose. This happened several times. With each increase in medication, the side effects increased until she was in a constant state of confusion and spent most of her days in bed. The happy and healthy teenager with big dreams vanished.

Lee’s parents were fraught with concern for their only daughter. Leslie spent countless hours researching through her tears to find alternative therapies to help her daughter. One night, she found an article about laser therapy and how it had successfully treated patients with a variety of ailments, including Trigeminal Neuralgia. The closest laser clinic was in South Carolina. They immediately packed their car and drove up the next day.

Twelve hours later, Lee received her first laser treatment. She went to the clinic twice a day for two weeks to receive a total of 28 laser sessions. Lee’s pain subsided with each visit, but it would take 4 to 6 weeks for the lasers to reach their full potential. After her last treatment, she started to wean herself off the pain medication. One month later, Lee was almost pain-free and functioning like a healthy teenager again. A month after that, she was completely pain-free and back on the ice playing hockey with her teammates in Lake Placid.

Nobody could believe it. Did this laser really cure Lee from Trigeminal Neuralgia? Why didn’t the medical experts suggest laser therapy as a treatment option? Although Leslie was overcome with relief, she was incredulous at the lack of information and resources available for people suffering from Trigeminal Neuralgia. At that moment, she decided to dedicate her life to promoting laser therapy. Just three years later, Leslie and Lee opened Carmen Care.

Since 2013, the clinic has successfully treated thousands of patients and Leslie is regarded as one of the country’s leading experts on laser therapy. Lee is a lead laser technician and works with her mother every day…she still plays ice hockey and helped her team win the national championships in 2014.