Hi all:

I have not visited in a while but I find myself needing your wonderful advice again.

Just a quick recap:

The act of nine pregnancies and deliveries took a toll on my back. The sciatica became unbearable and about four years ago, after all conservative measures failed, my doc performed laminectomies on L4-5 and L5-S1 disks which had herniated.

It helped with my back pain but did nothing for the sciatica. So after another two years of physical therapy, epidurals, pain meds, etc., my doctor recommended the stim.

The trial worked great so I had it done in late July of 2010. I had probably 90% relief. I had my life back! (BTW, the "minimally invasive surgery" and quick recovery is a bunch of b.s. - that surgery was brutal!)

Fast forward to Feb of 2011. I had some issues with pelvic prolapse and had three surgical procedures at once. They removed adhesions in my abdomen, did a rectocele and cystocele repair. They suspended my bladder with a mesh material.

Ever since then my bladder has not functioned correctly. They did a second surgery in April to loosen the mesh, but that did nothing. So I have bladder retention, urgency, etc.

Since the February surgery I feel that the coverage has changed with my stimulator. I lost all coverage in my foot which was the worst of all. I'm seeing a new doctor at a university hospital and she has me going for pelvic and low back therapy. I'm now on my second bladder and kidney infection because of the retention.

My rep from Medtronic has tried to adjust the stim to get coverage back to normal. I've had probably 5 adjustments since Feb. When they adjust it now I get zapped in my abdomen and even my elbows. That has NEVER happened before. I had an x-ray which really did not show any migration but he said based on symptoms and where I'm getting zapped, there is obvious migration.

I saw him yesterday and he was able to get a bit of coverage into my legs but it is weak and basically useless. There is no foot coverage and no low back/butt coverage. I'm now having some low back/butt pain again. I am gimping around because of my sore foot.

Okay, sorry this is so long but I want to give as much info when asking the following questions:

Did any of you experience lead migration where it was working fine one day and out of whack the next? It would seem that once it's scarred in place it should stay put.

As part of the PT, the therapist has been doing some heavy duty back massage. At the end of those sessions my sciatica was so bad that the stim didn't help at all. Could massage cause lead migration?

Could either of my pelvic surgeries cause lead migration?

Have any of you gone through the revision? I have the paddles in my back.

Is the revision surgery like starting over? What's involved?

The Medtronic rep is talking to my neurosurgeon on Friday. I'm just beside myself.

Thanks for "listening" and any help will be greatly appreciated!

Mary

It is almost as if leads were a flock of birds capable of making the joiurney south or north.... Rrae, Tchr012, and others have had leads which migrated after they, too, had thought they had scarred in. I am a paddle person, and have passed a year out from surgery and have no complaints from my implant.

Each of the ladies mentioned above had revision surgery to address the migration so as to take maximum benefit from their SCS. So, if revision is in store for you, I truly hope they secure the leads or consider placing paddles so as to give you firmest possible connection. Post surgery you just have to follow the doc's caution and care instructions about movement, a thing I call BLAST---- no bend, lift, stretch, twist until the professionals give you the go ahead. Even then I have done so with care because I truly want to avoid surgery whenever/wherever possible!

Prayin for ya,
Mark56

Hi Mary,
You poor thing, you've been through the mill after having all of those surgeries and to be still suffering.
I had my medtronic stim surgery last December

Thankfully i've never had to have any of those other surgeries you mentioned, I have no children and probably never will due to this god awful pain.

I had my revision surgery 2 and half weeks ago so I guess i'm still recovering internally where they poked and prodded. It was a very minor surgery compared to having the stim put in, i found that tough going.
I have to meet with my Consultant in a couple of weeks to find out exactly what he did but I believe they upped the voltage on the stim by 2 volts to increase threshold for pain relief, i'm not sure if the leads had slipped or not.

I'm still having lots of pain at the surgery site, it's like someone is stabbing me everytime I try to walk so that's why I think it's still not fully healed, how could it be?

I don't know if heavy duty massage could cause lead migration, i was too afraid to get some massage and I guess I could do some.

I ocassionally suffer from bladder problems, I find it difficult to go when i'm in pain, it only ever happens now and again so I feel stupid going to another doctor with that when clearly it's due to the back pain.

Please let me know things go for you, are to meet with your pain doctor or medtronics technician anytime soon? I hope so.

Sinéad

Thank you all for your replies.

I saw the Uro-gyne yesterday and she said that I still have the kidney infection and ordered a whole bunch of tests for next week.

Today the neurosurgeon's office called and said they compared this week's x-ray with the one immediately post-op and one of the paddles has indeed slipped to the side and migrated upward. So, here I go again. I have to go see the neurosurgeon after my tests next week and discuss my options, i.e., get it fixed or live with it. My uro-gyne said that my issues with the stim have be secondary to whatever needs to be done with my kidney/bladder issues.

AAAARRRRGGGGHHHH!

I hate feeling sorry for myself but I can't catch a break.