I'm new to this group here, but am excited to see so many people with stimulators. Up here in Alaska its rare to meet or run into some one with one, as I have yet to do so. It helps to read comments from people and is supportive.
Five yrs ago I broke rib head T5-T7 and had hairline fractures that followed the ribs around to the side on two levels. They never healed right and I ended up w/chronic nerve, sensory and motor skill deprevation. Nothing helped or touched the pain in a flare up. They eventually ended up doing the trial run, then the single lead placement last Sep. About 4mo. after that we discovered that the lead had migrated so they had to remove it and ended up placing the perm. one in. I have yet to recover from this.
Jan. I had the double paddle lead 16 electrode stim put in. This required a small laminectomy to insert it. Talk about more invasive and painful than the first single lead. Its been a little over two months and I'm still recovering big time from the surgery. I'm still on pain meds and the stim. seems to be working in that it reduces the length of my spasms.
If anyone else here has this or similar situation in place, I'd love to know your experiences and how long its taken you to recover. The doc said would be about 2-4 months before the surgery pain is gone and about 11 months for my body to return to somewhat normal activities.
Sadly I've ended up gaining a ton of weight after this surgery. Have other people with this gained weight too?
Thank you for any responses pertaining to this.