Breakthrough Pain Therapy Transforms Local Woman’s Life

For many married couples, dinner is routine: a quiet conversation across the table, the clink of silverware, and the comfort of an ordinary evening. But for Gayle Seward, 71, even sitting through a meal became unbearable due to chest pain.

“It was very uncomfortable to take chest pain medicine and have to lie down during dinner,” Gayle says. “My main symptom was jaw, neck, and shoulder pain that would then trickle down my chest.”

The Prairie Village, Kansas, resident has been receiving treatment for her heart condition from Saint Luke’s for years. Gayle was told she had a 90% blockage in her main coronary artery. When doctors tried to repair the artery, they found that it was clear, meaning the artery had a spasm that mimicked a blockage.  

Eleven years ago, Gayle’s previous cardiologist diagnosed her with prinzmetal angina, a type of chest pain that happens when one of the heart’s arteries suddenly spasms for a short amount of time. Since 2023, Tracy Stevens, MD, a board-certified and fellowship-trained cardiologist with Saint Luke’s Cardiovascular Consultants, has treated Gayle’s heart condition in coordination with a team of Saint Luke's experts.

“A coronary spasm, or prinzmetal angina, creates heart attack symptoms, and that’s what my colleague Dr. Jacob and I have seen Gayle for,” says Dr. Stevens. “With angina, patients can experience the visual of a person clutching their fist to the chest, but they can also experience jaw and neck discomfort, toothache, pain between the shoulder blades, radiation down the arm, or a combination of those symptoms.”

After starting a new medication, Gayle experienced more intense coronary spasm episodes, which resulted in jaw, neck, and shoulder pain she said would trickle down into her chest seven and eight times per day. “I would literally feel like I was being strangled,” Gayle says. “It got to the point that I would dream somebody was strangling me, but I'd wake up and realize I was in the middle of an episode.”

Dr. Stevens prescribed nitroglycerin that decreased the number of daily coronary spasms, but since Gayle needed more relief, she was referred to Dany Jacob, MD, a board-certified interventional cardiologist at Saint Luke’s Mid America Heart Institute, in March 2025 for help decreasing the pain she experienced throughout the day.

“Her stress test on her heart suggested that she didn’t have a significant blockage so if she is having symptoms of angina, her heart is trying to communicate that it did not have optimal flow at that moment, leading to the diagnosis of coronary vasospasm, and after trying different medications, we decided to proceed with a stellate ganglion block,” says Dr. Jacob.

Now working with Mark Bilezikjian, MD, a pain medicine provider at Saint Luke's Pain Management Clinic, to help relieve Gayle’s pain, the doctors recommended the minimally invasive procedure designed to calm the body’s stress response by administering medication to the neck to further reduce Gayle’s coronary vasospasms.

Gayle had her first nerve block treatment in December. After a month, her episodes decreased by 50%.  

“I don't get more than two episodes per day, and I've gone maybe five days without any spasms, which has been a big change from where I started,” Gayle says. “It was a big relief, and the pain I felt changed immediately, too.”

Six weeks after her first treatment, Gayle feels like she can live her life and go on dates with her husband again. “It used to be awkward going to dinners or socializing a lot because of the painful spasms, but I'm able to do anything I want now,” Gayle says.

With a gym in her home, Gayle has always been able to do core and cardio workouts, opting for working out on her treadmill and strength training, but she has seen a dramatic change and now works out more with minimal interruptions to her sessions.

Gayle credits her team of Saint Luke's providers in cardiology and pain management for how they’ve helped her along the way. “It's been a long process, they have encouraged me all the way, and all of my providers have been excellent in dealing with this,” Gayle says.

“I was frightened to drive before, and my husband has had to drive me everywhere, but I can drive now, visit people, go shopping, do the things I love, and not worry.”

Saint Luke's Mid America Heart Institute offers the most comprehensive heart and vascular care in Kansas City and is the third hospital in the U.S to achieve Comprehensive Cardiac Center certification from The Joint Commission. The Saint Luke’s Pain Management Clinic provides diagnosis and treatment for patients like Gayle suffering from chronic or acute pain. Learn more about our heart services.