Spinal Cord Stimulator

Thank You Elteec98. Still biting my tongue because of the pan. My spine feels like it's splitting in half & wants to tear itself out of my body. If I knew the stimulator wasn't in me, I'd swear it was still inside of me. Doing its own thing, turning itself on, electricuting & bruising me still. Seeing an orthopedic surgeon with all of the images I had taken. He doesn't believe in reading other radiologists reports. I'm hoping he sees/finds something that's causing me all of this pain, brusing & suffering.

God Bless EVERY ONE the stimulator works for. It's the worst decision I ever made.

Worst decision for me 2yrs ago...still sufferring back pain from trial...and many dollars later no answers..I so agree with you. Have you found any answers?? Please update as we are all trying to figure out what happened to. Us. Prayers..

All the test and scans Have showed no back injury ..only small paracentral protrusiom at c3..but Im telling you my whole spine has shifted. To make this short I spent 8gran in copays ladt 2 yrs and no closer to answers.. I still have terrible pinching and what I think is muscle weakness which goes around to stomach and chest. I think I have scar tissue in my muscles as it was a very very painful procedure for me. If I had only not been so darn brave and stopped it!!!! Medtronic did update their side effects to include scar tissue in 2017?? Would be interested in any way to heal scar tissue? ( Look up arachonditis or something sounding like that. Could be your problem where things get stuck) U have felt like my muscles have turned to rock on r side..

Hey, socks mom, I decided to educate myself a bit better on arachnoiditis after reading your posts and now I am convinced I know what happened to you. At some point during your procedure to place your leads your doc punctured the dura, the lining that protects the spinal cord and keeps the spinal fluid in.  That's probably when you started feeling the pinching in your shoulder blade.  This is the action that set you up for arachnoiditis.  He broke the seal to the spine and thereby opened a hole to the outside for foreign chemicals, toxins, whatever to get in.  If you look at those leads, they are fairly big.  Most of the time when you tear a hole that big in the dura folks don't feel very well, as you loose spinal fluid your brain actually drops down and you can get a pretty massive headache every time you sit up or stand up.  So, here you are trying to evaluate this device for it's ability to relieve back pain and it's messing up your entire equilibrium in your central nervous system with a nice size whole allowing your spinal fluid to leak out.  I suspect that's why your complaint to the FDA hasn't gotten anywhere, this isn't a problem with the SCS, it's an operator error.  The SCS worked just fine, the doctor didn't insert it properly and then didn't recognize that he didn't insert it properly.  Now, when you turn that thing on, it's sending those signals straight on through to an unprotected spinal cord, it must have felt like massive electrical jolts instead of the nothing or mild tingles the rest of us feel.  That would cause all sorts of muscle spasms and pain. Finally, they pull the mess out, but the damage is done and you have developed arachnoiditis, what's the proof?  That paracentral protrusion at C3 could be a tangle of nerve roots, that's all you have to go on in arachnoiditis diagnosis- looking for bunches of stuck together nerve roots and that's what they look like, a clump where  there shouldn't be one.  A lot of your side effects now, the sweating, muscle cramping, fatigue, all of them are text book arachnoiditis.  Unfortunately, there isn't a cure for it.  I hoped I at least helped with a reasonable explanation of what could have happened to you.

Lynn

Surgeons did say I have alot of scar tissue, like cement. They said they can feel it. Well dahhhh, how do they think we feel when we're trying to move & the scar tissue is rubbing against our muscles & soft tissue. I saw an orthopedic spine surgeon & showed him CD's where there is an abscess with fluid in it, it's bulging out of my back. He told me he didn't see anything. Well the radiologist who took it & the neurologist who looked at it saw it, why didn't he? I'm done with Drs. There are wonderful experienced ones, and there are ones just looking for $350 a visit because they don't take certain insurance.

Good Luck Everyone.

My surgeon got away with murder & he's probably laughing at me right now

Only one tought to reply...I hope my mom was right when she said "You reap what you sow"

I am there with you. Had a double fusion in July of 2009. Never really helped with the pain.  In the end he wanted to send me to a clinic for work rehab, never addresses the ongoing pain.  New pain Mgt doc says lots of scar tissue but Insurance Company won’t cover the procedure to break it down. Tried a Nevro SCS with success early on but no relief for the last 12 months.  So the pain meds continue. 

Thanks for info... It all depends on the gods out in the medical world though doesn"t it...If they can"t see it or find it then we are Hypochondiacs or are just crazy??  One Day it will come back to them hopefully 

What do you use for pain? At first I was on Dilaudid till I found out just how strong it was and the side effects. Worse than morphine! Now I'm on Tramadol.. doesn't relieve all the pain,, just enough to take the edge off.

I had my best pain relief when Opana was available.  The FDA took it off the market last July (2017) because about 10 people in Ohio snorted Opana. Now I am on Oxycodone 6 Times a day  and Time releases OxyContin twice a day. They help manage the pain but I am no where near pain free. If the Nevro SCS could get back on line I could be pain free like I was right after it was installed.  But I have to remember I was taking Opana which really worked for me. 

Would love to chat more with you regarding the unit. My husband had 2 Boston Failures

Brenda