Hope, he wanted me to be as active as possible, I guess so he could get an idea if the leads would stay put long enough to scar in; i.e, if they move during 3 days of active movement, how likely is it they are NOT going to move during 6 weeks of even minimal movement?

He doesn't want to go with the pain pump, although if this fails I may press him harder. He says there are risks, and he thinks I'm still too "functional" for it. LOL, I still have some pride and always shower and put on decent clothes when I go to the Dr. I should just go looking like I usually do, in sweats, dirty hair, straight from bed, maybe he'd get the picture?

I swear there's a special place in you-know-where reserved for WC and insurance co people!!

Jo, the leads will be tied down to gristle (ewww) but can still move quite a bit side to side I guess. There's a procedure called a laminectomy where they open the epidural space and stitch the leads down, but it's rarely used (spinal headache of the worst kind is guaranteed) and is contraindicated for RSD patients.

SCS stands for spinal cord stimulator - it's placed into the epidural space and runs up into the the processing center at the base of your skull, the leads are placed in contact with the area that sends messages to the place that's desired, in this case my hands, arms,shoulders and underarms. They will also make a channel for the wires down my back to the battery, which will be placed through an incision into my upper butt.

The Dr doesn't want to do all this surgery on me if there's a good chance it won't work. I want the surgery to work in the worst way!!!! I just don't know if I can bear coming to and being told the surgery was a failure, you know?