I have been in pain for almost 3 months now
Posted , 3 users are following.
I had a SCS put in back in Feb. everything went great. I felt good except for soreness from the surgery. A few days before going back to work in April I felt so good I went to the Gym, went and washed my car at a car wash using the wand, then went and picked 3 ice cream buckets of strawberries. A few days later I started having pain in my thoracic area where the paddle is mounted and it radiated around and down my left side to my hip alll the way under my beast. I have been seen by my Dr he is saying take SCS out that it's probably pressing on a nerve. I say no because it's working for my lumbar area as for the reason it was installed. He also says I may have a ruptured disc under the SCS. Going to have a CT done to see what's going on. Has anyone had anything like this and if so what was your out come. I don't want to loose my SCS . Prayers and help appreciated.
1 like, 6 replies
dpilot Wks1964
Posted
I just had my SCS (St. Jude brand with leads and not paddles, and no tingling or paristhisia). I have not had any issues. I'm still limitted in my activity in order to keep my leads from moving out of position till scar tissue anchors them in place. It sounds like your SCS has performed very well for you but something else has occured to injur your back. I wish there was something informative that I could relay to you but I have had nothing. Sorry, I wish I could help. Before I go let me I have a question. Yesterday was two weeks since my implant of the SCS. They held off turning it on for two weeks so that some of the swelling and effects from surgery began to aliviate. It's only been on for a day and I feel no affect or relief yet, while the relief during the trial was within one day. I suspect I still have alot of healing to do befor I experience relief. So my question to you is, "how long after surgery was it before you started getting relief? And, did you have to get the SCS programing tweeked a few times? And finally, once you began getting relief, how long did it take after surgery to reach your maximum benefit from your SCS.
I'll be anxiously waiting your response. I would also like to hear what you finally end up deciding to do about your new issues.
Thanks,
Dave
Wks1964 dpilot
Posted
dpilot Wks1964
Posted
I'm so glad to hear of someone having a successful outcome with a back pain issue. I hope you get past the next one. Tell me, does your SCS generate constant paristhesia (tingling), or not?
Wks1964 dpilot
Posted
socksmom Wks1964
Posted
dpilot socksmom
Posted
My experience was that it was painful but tolerable and creepy. They did not put me to sleep while they sliced a 4" incision to insert the leads. Instead, they punctured my back with needles and local anesthetic about a dozen times all around the area the Doc was going to cut. Felt like wasp stings on every one. Then it was creepy because I could feel the incision and the tissue spreading apart but no pain from the incision itself. That created a disgusting head picture. Then I could look up a bit and see an x-ray monitor and watch the doctor worming the lead up my spinal cord. Again, kind of creepy and a fair amount of pain that felt like someone was hyper arching my back. I yelled to the doc that I'd tell him where I burried the money if he would stop. That was an attempt at levity. After one lead was in place, they turned on the mapping mode of the stimulator which is the buzzing or tingling mode, and asked me where I was feeling the coverage. After getting the lead positiond best for the best coverage, they turned it off and repeated the process all over again with the second lead. That process took about 45 minutes. Once that process was completed, they finally put me to sleep and made another incision at my right side at the "love handle" and implanted the battery/generator. I woke up about 20 minutes after they finished and went home. I was all bandaged up and was told not to shower till my follow up visit a week after surgery. Well, I just got my wife to cover the bandages with a 12"x14" piece of visqueen, (clear plactic), taped up the edges with wide water-proof tape and showerd my normal twice a day routine being very careful not to bend, or twist. I had to keep in mind that if the wound gets infected from a wet bandage, it has a super highway right to the spine. I found it difficult to sleep on the incisions but had to. I was also afraid of taking any kind of sleep aid because I didn't want to sleep through being in a harmful position. The doctor did not give me any additional pain meds other than the 3/day 5 mg tabs of Oxycodone that I have already been taking for pain. During the first 3-4 days, the remanents of the anithesia made me sleepy every night enough to get by OK. The pain did increase as the numbness wore off so I dipped into my pain meds and took one extra tab during the first three days of recovery knowing that later I would have to go with one less each day for three days. That was fine because I expect the NS to relieve the pain to where I'll need fewer pain meds and eventually none at all as it gets closer to refill time. That's the whole point anyway. In my case the NS was not turned on till two weeks after the surgery because the said it would be ineffective due to the swelling and wound trauma of the surgery. Sure enough, I still have significant swelling and itching at the wound areas and the stimulator has not been very effective yet. It was re-mapped and turned on at the two week point which was 2 days ago. I was told that over all, it will take about 3 months for the wound to fully heal, swelling to dissapear, and scar tissue to completely anchor the leads and generator in position. During the 3 months, they will be tweeking the stimulation program. I like that with this stimulator, I feel none of the stimulation.The trial was very sucessful for me and I was hoping that I'd get the same relief as soon as it was turned on, but not to be, and it makes sense that the stimulation's effectiveness is nill with all the swelling in the way. But since I know how effective the trial was which was done with only 1 lead, I fully expect that by the end of August, I'll be getting exceptional results and can go back to flying.
That's a full description of my experience for you and I hope that it helps formulate your decisions going forward.BTW, my NS is the ST.Jude stimulator that works with no tingling or paristhesia as it's called. Tingling mode is turned on strictly for mapping the location for stimulation then once programed, the tingling is turned off and the "Burst" therapy which you do not feel, is turned on. This system was recently approved this last November. It uses leads, not paddles.