SCS HF10

Toni,

Go get a second or even third opinion. You are not pushed into anything. The decision is ultimately yours. I have had a Spinal Stimulator since t e end of July. However, my conditions are totally different from yours. So, it would be an apple to orange comparison. I deeply understand your need for relief from pain. That's why most of us seek out this forum. I have terrible nerve damage from fusion surgery, and that is what brought me here. Remember it's your body and your ( and your husband's) decision. I once traveled six and half hours for another opinion and it turned out to be some of the best advice I had received.

Good luck and I hope things work out for you. My mother has had both knees replaced and at 87 years old doing well with them.

Ask many questions!!!  I have had the unfortunate happen to me and developed a staph infection related to the paddle implant.  Sepsis!  Had to be reopened cleaned out and stapled.  5 more days in the hospital then 8 weeks at home with a PICC line (at home IV) for antibiotics.  Comes out tomorrow then long term antibiotics then just pray that that takes care of the infection.  If not it all comes out and then the PICC line for another 8 weeks and long term antibiotics and then hope again.  My pain has been decreased with the sciatica but I now have pain in my back where the paddles are.  Sooo.... who knows how long that will last.  Am still on the same dosage of pain killers I was on before the surgery but I hope that things will get better.  Good luck whatever your decision is.  DO NOT DO IT FOR ANYBODY ELSE BUT YOURSELF!   If things do go wrong it must be only because it was the surgery that you wanted!

There are brands of SCS that are MRI safe, so you can ask to only test out those brands.  I think that is a very relevant problem in your case with your knees, your orthopedic docs will most certainly be hampered by not being able to order MRIs.  I know you are feeling pushed into the SCS, your doctor is also feeling pushed now by this made up "opioid crisis" into finding some way of helping you that does not involve opioids.  Being a doc myself, even in retirement, I see the pressure being put on us and it really isn't fair that the government is coming between the doctor and the patient.  The government didn't go to medical school and residency, yet it wants to tell us what is best for your care.  That is why the push for the SCS.  If the SCS is successful for you, they will be able to reduce your narcotics, it is as simple as that. The manufacturers of these devices are making out big time, you almost wonder if they are going around spiking the heroin with deadly fentanyl to keep the "crisis" going LOL.  Unfortunately, I think that a lot of patients who aren't really ideal for the SCS are talked into the trial simply so that they can be weaned from narcotics.  I found my SCS to be extremely helpful, I had used peripheral TENS units also which work in a similar manner and also responded well to them. So, I kind of knew going in to the trial that I would respond to this kind of stimulation.  If you have ever tried TENS at physical therapy and had it work well, that's an indication that you, too would respond well to SCS.  Most of the time the week long trial is easy, not too painful and gives you a very good idea if the SCS is right for you or not. Rarely, as you can read on here, the trial is a disaster.  People get infections, leads get disconnected, they migrate, things do go wrong.  It's a minor surgery but it's right near your spinal cord which makes it a serious minor surgery.  They put me in a binder at the pain clinic after the procedure and I basically never touched that binder in any way until the end of the week.  I also stayed home all week so I wouldn't contact any unnecessary germs. I treated it like I had a hole to my spinal area and so I was super careful.  I did move around quite a bit to test it out and see how I felt etc.  You do have to give it a good run for it's money.  I ended up doing two trials for the SCS in my back and settled on the St. Jude/Abbott.  I only did one trial for my neck, the Nevro did so well in the trial, it hasn't done quite so well as a permanent.  Also, if you do the trial with leads, make sure you get the permanent with leads not paddles.  We have had a number of failures on here with people who had great trials with the leads and then had horrific experiences with the paddles.

HTH

Lynn

I got permanent placement last Tuesday. Medtronic Intellis and safe for MRI. I have hardware both legs. Ask your dr. Can be removed if you chose. Good luck. Gwen