Spinal Cord Stimulator
Posted , 146 users are following.
Has anyone had a spinal cord stimulator,it has been one suggestion for my husband who is still suffering after 4 years after his first surgery, he has had a further op two years ago and is still suffering immense pain, has weakness in his leg and finds walking difficult and now needs a stick to walk with. I am hoping someone has had a spinal cord stimulator that has had similar condition as my husband because as I understand it it is only a minor op to implant. I think the other option is fusion which I have heard horror stories about, especially as he doesn't seem to have success with major ops. Thanks
19 likes, 888 replies
mark20162 khi
Posted
Hi, my wife has just this week had her permanent Medtronic SCS implanted and is now back home recovering.
When we got home it turned out it was on low battery so we wanted to charge it to full capacity with it being brand new. The manual says a full charge can take 'over 12 hours', however over the last 3 days we have charged it for 16 hours so far without it being turned on, and it hasn't got past 75% yet. Have others experienced this, is this normal? Should we carry on charging or give up?
The thing is the charger is placed on my wife's back in a position she is unable to reach, so I have been sat next to her for 3 days now holding the charger in place as we find the belt to be useless. We can only get 2 units of charging strength, the hospital told us this will improve as the surgical dwelling goes down. Have others found this to be the case?
paulbklyn mark20162
Posted
Did they give you a tech to call if you have a problem?
I have the nevro I have 2 techs to call if there is a problem
Have my implanted 2 months finally this Wed they increase
the stimulation.
Best of luck to you wife.
cynthia70714 mark20162
Posted
Mark
Can she lay on it? I'm not sure with that model but I had the Nevro and I would try like heck to laydown on my back to charge, but it didn't take long with the Nevro but for me it's not working and I'm in worse pain after 1st battery placement in 4/15 and finally a revision surgery in 5/16 I think but they changed reps she put it on sensation and it screwed me up worse than ever, so o couldn't take the pain nomore and had the neck steroid injection and after that I was getting the feeling of being electrocuted called rep and Drs office after hours and I got nowhere until I said I was contacting a lawyer my body I want it out the leads or compressing on nerves, and noone wants to listen to me, company said go have an er doctor take it out, are you kidding me, I'm in so much pain can hardly walk around or sleep.
Good luck best wishes
Cynthia
Staying positive
mark20162 cynthia70714
Posted
Luckily within an hour of me posting this it reached 100%, so took 17 hours charging from low battery to full battery but at least we got there. She has now turned it on and it works really well for her. I think we will charge it up daily for her going forwards or maybe every other day depending how the battery life goes.
chelsie17844 mark20162
Posted
Mine actually did that when I let it die and in the beginning. I guess in the beginning it isn't fully charged so if you let it die without knowing it'll take a long time.
cynthia70714 mark20162
Posted
That is great!! I hope she finds great relief with her SCS! Stay positive and God bless!
Take care keep us posted
Cynthia ( Cindy)
paulbklyn cynthia70714
Posted
I increased 2xand had pain alover they said I was still recovering
Wed. I have drs appt and the tech will be there too.
Can you go to another pain doctor?
Best of Luck
Paul
paulbklyn mark20162
Posted
God be with the misses
Paul
frank92854 paulbklyn
Posted
God bless you Paul. I hope you are getting some relief from your pain.
paulbklyn frank92854
Posted
Yes I' on the Nevro HF 10 I think it is
My pain was about 8-9 now its about 1-2
at night it goes up to 7 but they havent increase it at all
hopefully they will Wed when I go to the dr
Did they tell you they have a trail one which in not implanted
only the leads are, to see how it effects your pain
Try that and see what happens
Paul
glxpassat cynthia70714
Posted
Might I make a suggestion. Don't lay on it. I learned the hard way; wondering why mine was never charging correctly, until my rep told me. They will shut off if warm, and its only 104 degrees; which us being 98.6 f. isnt that much hotter. Its simply a preventative measure. Now they all work basically the same way, but mine is a Boston, so yours might allow a higher temperature, but no matter the device they will all get hot if you lsy on it
😊
cynthia70714 glxpassat
Posted
Glxpassat,
My got moved to my abdomen and they just couldn't get it right so I had to do it off, once they put it on stimulation it screwed me all up
Cynthia
cynthia70714 paulbklyn
Posted
Paul,
Well dr said he's going to take it out before I end up going in a nut house, not alot around in my area
Hoping he takes it out before damages is done
Thanks
Cynthia ( Cindy)
PS the told me to have an er doctor take it out!! Yeah right, I don't think so
Reddave8 paulbklyn
Posted
Hi, I've read your comment above and I am pleased to hear your Nevro is working ok & should be even better once the tech's make the adjustments for you. I have to say I'm hedging towards the same device if I can convince my consultant, though I'm probably getting ahead of myself as I'm still awaiting a trial date.
Wishing you all the best
regaeds Reddave8
frank92854 paulbklyn
Posted
Paul, yes they were talking about a trial SCS first then if it worked for me they would install the permanentl one.
Couple of questions.
I'm on Medicare Blue Cross. What's your feeling about what would be covered.
I've been seeing quite comments on patient.info about battery issues. Most of the complaints were over the placement. The rest are about charging issues. What has been your experience?
One more.
It's my feeling that patient.info site attracts more negative comments. In my opinion is that the people who have have a good experience don't comment as often.
What do you think?
I pray that you continue to have positive results from yours.
God bless you Paul. I hope you have a great Christmas holiday.
paulbklyn frank92854
Posted
Hi Frank
Thank you for your kind words
My stimulator is on my r/s lower above the belt line.
I have tried programs 1 & 2 and they havent worked,
will try program 3 later this week.
While on program 1 at the starting set it cut my down about 50 %
put the last few days I've had pain especially at night couldnt
sleep, the breakthrough meds dont work to well.
I'm seeing my pain dr and tech from Nervo next week.
Frank I'm not on medicare so I really dont know what would be covered
hoping they cover it all.
As of 3 months since it's was implanted I as no problems with the
machine at all. It charges up and it doing it's job for the most part.
Only draw back as of right now, No local imaging is equiped to do an MRI even on my foot, seems only hospitals can accomadate me.
Can't lift anything heavy, or twist and stretch.
Have to be careful not to go near anything that might cause harm the the battery.
Guess little price to pay for pain relief.
Hope you get somepain relief soon
Good Bless you and have a great Christmas & even better
New Year