Has anyone every tried a spinal nerve stimulator? My doctor wants me to try one but I’m very apprehensive.
I have one. The buzzing did distract me enough that I could complete my grocery shopping, but it didn’t really “mask” the pain like they said it would. Eventually, they changed my stimulator to “high dose” which I wasn’t supposed to be able to feel, but I could, slightly. On high dose, you have to charge the generator every day. I realized I would go several days, forgetting to charge up, and never noticing the difference, so I stopped charging altogether.
I have heard other people have had better results, though. Of course, the doctors all thought I just had diabetic neuropathy back then.
I had a Medtronic Spinal Cord Stimulator surgically implanted in May 2016. The surgery required about 3 months for healing, before I felt comfortable driving again. Initially, I thought it reduced my pain by about 33% (based on reduced dosage of oxycodone for neuropathy pain). I experimented with many different settings, but it never really helped. Frequency range for the Medtronic SCS is from 30Hz to over 1,000 Hz. (The higher the frequency, the more often it needs to be recharged) My pain is primarily in my toes, and the doctors and Medtronic technicians said that this is much more difficult to target than other parts of the leg or foot. I later did a trial of the newer Nevro SCS (which works at a higher frequency and therefore you don’t feel the tingling from the stimulation. But the seven day trial didn’t work at all for me, so we didn’t proceed with a permanent device.
I had a second surgery to remove the Medtronic device in Mid 2018 - two years after it was inserted. During the last year, I kept it off much of the time, but found it still used up battery even when it wasn’t being used. Because it became overly discharged, the technicians had to use a special technique to restart the device - something they can only do once before the battery has to be surgically replaced. That’s when I decided to have it removed. The removal surgery was less invasive than inserting it, and healing only took about 6 weeks.
The Medtronic device I had was an improvement to earlier designs, because it can be put into “safe” mode for an MRI. With other types you cannot have any MRI.
Thank you so much for your feedback.
Don’t be. . I’ve had 2 neuro-stimulators implanted. . The first one (Medtronic )worked for about 2 1/2 yrs, then my feet got worse and it quit producing. Tried a 2nd one (Boston Scientific ) which was a high frequency model and it irirratated my feet even more. Have pain pump now and don’t recommend it. I’ve had so much dope running through it and now trying to wean off fentanyl. This is horrible. Going to Stanford next month . Will let you know if I learn anything new. I’m 83 and tho I think about it, I’m not ready to give up yet it’s been 14 painfull years. Best to all. Patty