Hi John,
I wanted to welcome you to the group.This is a wonderful group you have found. I had a scs implanted in my right abdomen and the leads put in between my shoulder blades. I was implanted with them on December 17, 2006.I had a temporary one in for three days prior to that to make sure it was going to work first. It was wonderful. It had taken away about 60-70% of my pain.I thought this is the way to go. I am on cymbalta 60mg once aday,trazedone 50mg once aday. My family doctor tried to take me off the cymbalta after being on it for 2 and a half years and I had major withdrawal symtoms. That very same time I went through major muscle spasms non stop. I shut my scs off and it took 15 minutes to a half an hour to get them to stop. To double check I turned it back on and the spasms started up immediately.So I shut it down again and contacted my pain doc. They told me to restart the cymbalta and gave me 90 pills of skelaxin 800mg to try and help with the spasms. I am now out of the skelaxin. They also told me to turn my scs down. I told them if I turn it down it won't do me much good. Well I did as they said and have been back on the cybalta now for just over two months and I have not had much luck at the spasms going away. They told me once I got the cymbalta back in my system that that should help with the spasms. Suprise it has not yet. I turned my scs down from 1.10 to .90, get if I am lucky 30% pain coverage, and still deal with the spasms. I use to run my scs constantly and now run it very little because I can't handle the spasms and the really bad burning sensation down my entire arm. I don't know to this day if the spasms and the burning sensation I am having is related to the scs or not but in my opinion I think it is because when I have it off there are little spasms but a lot of pain. I guess all I can say is each individual is different in how they react to different things so how it reacts with me or anyone else may not be the same as how it reacts with your wife. I am not trying to scare you or discourage you in any way, I am just telling you the experience i am having to this day. Good luck with everything you do and it is good to see a spouse stick by there partners side like you are doing. You don't know how many people wish they had a spouse like you. You sound like a wonderful person. Keep up the good work and make sure to tell your wife she how lucky she is to have someone in her life like you.Keep on smiling and keep your chins up.
If you have any further questions you can contact me by email or if you or your wife just want to talk go ahead and email me.

Tracy