my husband had one placed about 15 months ago. The "pocket" hurt for about 6 months but he has no problems at all with it now. It just took a while for the scar tissue to form around it. He has the Medtronics implant. As for the nerve pain, if you have trouble with the levels of stimulation causing an uncomfortable fleeting or makes you feel like you're electrocuting yourself, REMEMBER, there are numerous settings! You can't program it yourself. They only give you a few settings to choose from. Call the Medtronic rep and they will be happy to meet you in your doctors office and try new combinations. We met with them 3 times to try new settings and finally found a combination that reduced his pain level by over 50% without any discomfort to him.

Good luck.