Hi,
I'm a 29-yr sufferer of chronic pain in my left leg (both upper and lower front) and top of my left foot. I had back surgery in 1990 to remove a herniated portion of my L5-S1 disc. I've had about every test, screening, procedure done w/o any success. My pain has somewhat been managed w/meds for the past 12+ yrs but this summer, my new pain doc decided to take me off one of them (Soma - said it is dangerous) and my pain became unmanageable. I had a Medtronic spinal cord stimulator (SCS) trial Sept. 2014 & an permanent Medtronic SCS implanted w/paddle lead in Oct. 2014. The trial worked great (5 days - about 80% reduction in pain). The permanent implant was turned on 1 wk post-op and worked great for the first week (80% reduction in pain). Since then I've had nothing but problems with it. The stimulation hasn't seemed to change but no longer getting a lot of relief, but now have some numbness & weakness in leg & foot. I've had it reprogrammed late Nov 2014 but no success. I have had to increase meds & walk w/a cane just to exist. I am having it reprogrammed again this week, but don't know what I will do if they are not successful.