Neurostimulators????

Hi I have stimulators fitted (may last year) at guys in London. I have the st Jude’s device to. It’s worked for me after I had a broken dydnesis that was revised to full fusion, and then failed surgery syndrome or what ever. I felt like giving up but this has given me back a vastly reduced pain life. I’m 31 and wish I’d found it before fusions etc. I ha e X-rays etc and photos of my back from having it done if you want. I had the trail in for two weeks the. Had full implant. Both time got train home same day to Norfolk. Hope this helps

Hi 

Hi Samantha,

I'm sorry to hear of all things you are going through.  I hope that you can get the relief you are desperately looking for.  I can't speak to the neuro stimulators or the neck  pain.

I did have fusion surgery at L5-S1 in July 2017 and after about 4 weeks of severe pain and new sciatic pain I'm happy to report that I am doing great.  I'm only 42 and worried that I would also have a lifetime of limitations, but after physical therapy and adjusting to my new back and the movements that I'm now allowed to do and not do I truly feel it was the right decision.

My #1 reason for feeling so well I think is I exclusively took part in aquatic therapy twice a week for about 5 weeks .  I started this at about 6 weeks post-op but the strength I gained, pain relief, and the proper posture and techniques I learned to help protect my surrounding discs tell me that I made the right decision.

After 6 months have gone by I see myself getting back to the things I did before (golf, soccer, hiking) all in good time though.

I know we are all case specific but all I can say is do your research, read the forums about your condition, and trust in your doctors and yourself.  Being 45 is too young to feel like you have reached the end of an active life.  Please take care 

The reason the doc wants to hold off on a fusion is because it will have to be a multi layer and will limit all me bending and twisting. It will be the L3, L4, L5, and S1 fusion. I fell down a flight of stairs and already have a multi level fusion in the neck, that one was 6 yrs ago and now is also starting to cause problems. So the doctors are really trying to get the lower back somewhat under control before they try to address the issues in my neck..I do agree with holding out on the fusion mostly because having a fusion will also start to cause damage to the surrounding discs., which is something i really dont want to do

Samantha, just make sure you do the test correctly. What do I mean by that? OK, when I was set uo for the trial I was told to be extremely careful not to stretch to far, bend, or twist. All these movements can cause the leads to slip out of position since thay are not sutured in place in the trial, rendering the trial invalid if the leads move out of position. I was also told to continue taking my pain meds as usual in order to keep things constant. WELL, I advise the opposite. Naturelly when I began my trial I wanted it to be a valid and accurate test, so after they implated the test leads, I went home and sat in my recliner for 5 days and did nothing except take my pain meds as directed. Well naturally the pain reduced 50-75% because I was sedintary. This gave me a false impression that the stimulator was working at reducing my pain so I had it implanted permanently. But what I know now is that I have little if any pain reduction from the neuro-stimulator. What instead happened was that I was getting pain reduction from the inactivity and sitting in my reclined chair while still taking pain meds. Of course anybody should have less pain being sedentary in a comfort chair taking pain meds. I thought that ment the stimulator was working for me so I had it permanently implanted. After the healing process, ended, I became active and did all the things I wanted to do like bend, twist, carry things and just normal activity. But the stimilator that I tried was not working when I was using it under very active conditions. So its for the most part is a failure and I would have realized it if I would have behaved differently with it during the trial. So What my final suggestion is that once you the trial leads placed, that you DO NOT be sedentary a nd do nothing like I did, but instead, do all the activity you can. Try not to over stretch and be as careful as you can, but go ahead and do the type of activities you want to be doing. Test the system under normal body activity of bending and twisting, and refrain from taking meds at all or at least stretch the time between meds farther out. Giv yourself a workout during the trial period or at least for tyhe last 4 days of the trial period. If you don't try the stimulator under the conditions you plan on functioning at, then the trial will not be testing much..A week of normal activity will give you a more accurate test than just sitting all day for 7 days

Yes, the doc must tell you that if you are too active and mobile you couls cause the leads to move out of position. While that is true, I think you can be very active and mobile as long as you don't bend or reach hi to any extreme, otherwise. If you don't get active and mobile at least for the last 3-4 days, you won't really be testing the affectivness or the stimulator. Yea, I forgot about the shower, but I took shower with no problem. I measures the area in a square around the bandaged area of my back and cut 14 pieces of plastic from trash can liners or from clear plastic rolls that would fit over the bandaged area. Then just before taking my shower I had my wife coverer the bandaged area with the plastic and seal off the outside edges of the bandaged area with wide water proof medical tape. I never got the bandages wet. I was careful not to strech and pull the tape up, and I didn't expose the area to the water spray any more than I needed to, but I did take showers.  Hope that helps