Pain Stimulator Implant Any Ideas

[oldman273]

Hello I just got a trail implant for a pain stimulator for my lower back today feels like 10000 ants or bugs traversing down my body. I suffer chronic pain as a result of SC back injury and am at wits end. Tired of going back and forth on the med merry go round. Any thoughts on what helped and did this type of procedure do you any good. I know everyone is different but witht he stonewall at the VA I had to try something. Adios and really would like to hear from others in the same boat. Funny I thought that the thing would help with ROM but I still am not able to bend hardly at all more like a half of a bow to another asian. I would be considered rude as the deepr or lower bow is a sign of rrespect I am glad I am still here in the US. Adios....

[oldman273]

Umm. a tens unit while using similar principal is not the smae thing. Sorry but the stimulator is a thousand times better, and I have used both extensively. The leads for the stimulator actually come into contact with the spinal cord. It makes for a huge difference.

Further I had the surgery mentioned below, and it did not correct anything. The nerve was already damaged. Nerves conduct their signal along the outside mylan sheath, and mine was severed. Nerves do regenerate but the process is amazingly slow... I'll be dead long before mine could heal.

Again..Im going to PM you with my phone number. Please feel free to call, no matter the time, and collect is fine. I will help you with understand how the control works, and we can work together on getting you some relief here ok? I am more than willing, cause I hate to see what could be a real benefit be passed over. My stimulator works incredibly well during low or even mid pain cycles. When the pain really ramps up it is useless to me, but it certainly gives me more bad than good days. I just had a new one installed a few months back, and since they are now rechargeable, and supposed to last between 10 and 20 years I am a big advocate of them. My old one was great until the battery died.

Bob Smith

Hey Bob Sorry I was off line for a couple of days I am seriously thinking about doing the implant only thing got me to thinking about it is being on the hook for drugs through the VA with everything I deal with I hate to be looked at as a druggie. I know us people with bad backs are looked at sometimes as drug seekers but I would try anything up until surgery myself. I have had 1 civ surgeon and 1 military surgeon both say my back is toast surgery cannot help. I am just at a point to where I have to do something else. I am sure many of you know what I mean. I am not into hurting myself not a shout out just angry tired and ill cause of this old broke down back. I sent you a message sorry for the lack of response but my mind has been elsewhere. Adios..

[sixthscents]

Well while I do use pain meds still, my old implant died (the battery went dead). It was shocking to realize that my med use almost doubled between then and the time they implanted the new one. Since then it is back down to normal levels.

I learned a simple rule with pain med, dont take a bit more than you need. Its hard to manage, but if you ever get caught on that spiral, its tremendously hard to break, so its what I do.

Oh, BTW Dilaudid... for some reason I metabolize it weirdly and it has almost no effect at all on me. Aspirin works better. Go figure, but I took it back and said give me somethign else. Also, I make a point of occasionally taking any extra pain meds I may have and turning most (I always keep some if the VA screws up and is late) of them in to the local VA clinic for destruction. They were very suprised the first time, but I made sure they annotated in my med records that I brought them in that time and every time since. Hard to say you are a drug seeker when you take them back to them if you dont us them huh? I was told that I was the only one who ever had at the local VA clinic, which did suprise me... they didn't even know how to destroy them. I had to tell them to pour hydrogen peroxide over them in the sink as long as it was city sewers... you never want to flush meds into a septic system.

Anyway the implanted stimulator works well for me for mild to moderate pain.

[buickx]

A fellow Vietnam friend of mine has had his stimulator in his back since 2003, and the problem with several other stimulators, then his, is the life if the battery. Here is the internet site of his below:

http://www.medcompare.com/details/39273/Pr...SCS-System.html