Low back pain and pressur

I feel your pain, I and many others know what you're going through. The spinal stimulator may be of some help to you to relieve some of your pain. Read what others are saying about their spinal stimulator whether it helps them or not. I have the NEVRO Stimulator. it Has to be reprogrammed because there seems to be a missing lead. when the battery runs completely dead I can tell of increased back pain then where is properly charged and operating correctly. I have had many back surgeries eight in total and three neck surgeries, nothing seems to 100% kill the pain. I am taking 20 mg of oxycodone with the pain pills and the stimulator I can keep it under control . please do your research and talk to your back surgeon and your pain doctor to find what would be best for you. good luck please keep us informed of your progress. Don

i had a spinal stimulator implanted two years ago and would definitely not do it again, if had a do over. i recently forgot to charge it for a few days and found out that my pain was much less without it on. i think it was overstimulating my nerves and causing other problems suchas pelvic pain

Hello Amico,

I have lower back ,legs and upper back pain. I received the SCS last February 2018. it's been a year come tomorrow. At first I felt like I had issues with it, but I had it adjusted a couple of time. What I realize now is that it took me some time to get use to it. I've read problems from other people, but I learned to relax and let it do what it's suppose to do. it's a vibration I feel and you can control it in time until you get the right vibe that comforts you. Now I use it daily several times a day and glad I gave it time to work. Yes it was almost a year, but now I will continue to use this SCS... I wake up in a lot of pain, I use the SCS, heat pad, and pain pills. To be honest, I thought I would use less pills, but it did not happen. I am able to do some chores walk with limited pain... Riding long distant is sometime painful, but I have my SCS always. My advice is to try it, give it time to get use to it, by adjusting your SCS. Good luck, I hope it works for you. PS. I'm not that active, but I do get relief from my pain, and cold packs might help also.

i had dreadful pain radiating into buttock from severe disc problems and my pain management team recommended a Denervation for a facet joint problem ! I had a dreadful flare up for almost 8 weeks after this procedure and thought id made a dreadful mistake but suddenly all was ok and ive not looked back since May 2015- pain is only slight now and they suggest another treatment in next month or so.....I would def make inquiries if it will possibly work for you.....wish you well x

I had a SCS implanted in early June 2018. There's a lot to consider:

(1) Ask whether it is a low frequency or high frequency model. I had the high frequency (Nevro HF10) implanted. Supposedly you feel the electrical current inside you with the low frequency but not with the high frequency. I don't feel it in mine.

(2) You can get either the "percutaneous" or the "paddle" version. It's a lot to explain in this forum, ask your doc or the tech guy about this. In one case it is just wires run up your spine (via a pretty minor surgery), the other it is wires plus an implanted metallic paddle halfway up your spine that requires a more serious back surgery to install. I got the paddle. There are pluses and minuses to both.

(3) The SCS can actually cause "phantom pain," meaning it can generate pain in areas not currently painful for you or even amplify your existing pain. Sadly the company and the doctors don't like to admit this cause it scares off potential patients. They downplay it by calling it "over-stimulation," but it is in fact new pain. It can be controlled and you may actually stop feeling the added pain after a while but you should know that it occurs. It occurs in strange places too - under your ribs, in your groin, etc. I suffered from it for the first few weeks but eventually it mostly went away - your body adapts. Somebody even told me there is a technical reason it happens right after surgery and then ceases. It ceased (mostly) for me.

(4) Be aware that before you have it implanted, the tech company and perhaps even your doctor will be hard-selling you to get it done (the company, and perhaps even your doctor, makes money off the implantation). After it is implanted, the level of service drops sharply, because there is really no more money to be made off of you. You have to be forceful after it is installed to get their attention.

(5) Some people feel discomfort at the spot where the battery is implanted. It does "bulge out" and can pinch but it's not a big deal (at least it wasn't for me).

(6) Don't just expect it to be implanted and suddenly turn off your pain. Not everybody works the same, and there are dozens if not hundreds of programs they can try once it is inserted (change in frequency, in amplitude, in pulsing, in the sections of your spine being electrified, etc). You have to work with the tech guy to get it to work for you.

(7) Even if it does succeed for you, you may nevertheless want to take it further and lower your pain meds. This will also lead to a period of trial and error.

(8) - There IS an alternative to the SCS, which is a radio-frequency ablation (where they "cut the nerve"). At least discuss it with your doctor.

(9) You have to recharge it every day by holding an electrical device over your implanted battery for 15-30 minutes.

Okay with all that said, those are mostly warnings. Here's my experience: it's worked very well for me. Within 3-4 weeks my pain level was down 90% to 95%. I experienced some uncomfortable phantom pains but they eventually subsided. But this relief was only good enough to bring me down to the level where my current pain medication regimen made me comfortable. I'm now working on reducing the pain meds, which requires adjustments to the SCS. But I'm down to taking about 1/3 of the pain meds that I was taking before the SCS. There's hope I could even get off the pain meds altogether. So I'm actually overall pleased with the device, but be aware of all the warnings above...

Hope that helps.