Aus have had the use of Nevro for longer than the US, FDA took longer to approve it, not sure why. I've had my Nevro since Dec 2013, I've had a number of ups and downs along the way with it. The Aus reps I'm told assisted with the training of the US reps. All our Aus reps have had previous working life exp in nursing / medical / physiology and I've found them to be marvellous. My rep contacts me every 6 months, yep even after all this time.
Recently in July I was admitted to emergency early morning for severe pain, complete inability to walk. I accidentally left my Remote at home, panicking I texted my rep asked if she or any of the others were in the vicinity of where I was could someone come in and turn it off as they wanted to do a CT scan. As it turned out she was across the other side of the city & in peak hour, she jumped in her car, came straight to emergency, explained at reception who she was & was bought through immediately. My husband was blown away when she pulled out her laptop, logged on, verified all that had happened on my stim in the last 24 hrs, its charge level & when I last charged etc and then she turned it off. She proceeded to sit and talk with us both for another 20 minutes or so to see if there would be benefits to her returning & retweaking my program once I'd had the CT. They were giving me morphine to control the pain & of course once the stim turned off the pain went from what I was saying 10/10 to 20/10. We determined the stim was doing what it could in the level it was set at & this pain a complete new issue. Since then I've had to have major spine surgery again - a Retroperitoneal Anterior Lumbar Interbody Fusion, I've been in hospital now for 3 weeks. My rep has kept in contact with me the entire time, her commitment to her job (& her colleagues) is so very unlike reps I hear of from other brands & yes, I do liken them to car sales reps or insurance sales reps. Deal done see ya... I think my rep deserves employee of the year!! I've texted & spoken to her direct line Manager.
John over the years I've trialled each amplitude, program etc & I've found the lower the setting, the better coverage. Mine is set now for fixed upper back coverage if in P3 but I can play with P 1, 2 & 3 levels 1 thru 7 as I desire. I can change from fixed upper by dropping it back to P2. I have for the last 8 months kept it on amp 2, P1 level 6 or 7 & for my thoracic pain it has kept it well under control. My Lumbar is stuffed now with this new surgery & will likely require new programming. I might go for fixed Lumbar & option to change thoracic. Not sure why both can't be programmed to be fixed, suspect it has to do with number of leads & points. I have 2 leads 16 points. But, I'm not a tech person so I could be talking out of my butt!
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Originally Posted by John Nevro User
SOmething I don't understand here. The Nevro Implant outputs at 10K Hz. (That's 10,000 vibrations per second) Amplitide does not increase with frequency, which is why the Nevro Implant Operates at this frequency. The only control you have are 3 level of amplitude, and within those levels, 6 minor adjustments of the amplitude (more milli-amps) in incremental steps. Each step can greatly alter you reaction, take it slowly. I have had my implant in for a year. The inside arch of my feet were beginning to atrophy, and itched so bad, I scratched them with implement s till they bled. The Nevro implant has removed that sensation. I can now walk far better and the atrophy/neurapathy, has reversed. I do not allow them to program the "On/Off" duty cycles. My pain is constant, and this type of cycling caused too much pain. My implant is set at the factory standard, I usually run it on the second to the lowest setting. At times, for a day or two, I run it at the highest setting when my legs are "on fire".
It's may be different for different conditions, but I do believe there is a common ground. I wish Nevro would release to it's patients empirical studies so we could find ourselves, compare, and use our minds and stop fumbling, and use this data to our advantage. People in pain seem to be more involved in their care, and are seekers of knowledge. We need this information. IMHO.  |