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Originally Posted by Al1952
My husband's RSD started in his left shoulder and arm after arthroscopic rotator cuff repair in 2009. After 1 interscalene block, it spread to his chest, back, and right shoulder and arm. He cannot lay down at all, or lean back on his back. He sleeps in an office chair sitting forward. Of course, he only gets 1 -2 hours of sleep at a time. They cant do Ketamine because he cannot lay down. he has been on vicodin (10/325) for almost 2 years. We finally saw a PM Dr. today who wants to try a neurostimulator. Any thoughts?  |
My prayers go out to you and your husband. I did go through the neurostimulator trial. I had a Bankart Repair to my left shoulder which is a procedure where they open the shoulder and reattach all the ligaments and tendons that were torn in a fall from a horse. 80% of my pain is in the shoulder region and the rest is down the arm and some what into the hand. The SCS trial was not difficult and the Medtronic rep was easily contacted when I needed to make adjustments on my own at home. I wore it for ten days, maybe two weeks. The problem I had was trying to keep the impulse centered in the shoulder and not the area from the elbow down. I went back to the Dr. and he tried to manually manipulate the leads to attempt to keep the impulse in the shoulder but it was not much help. This was in 2003. The pain mtg. doc I see tells me that there have been some improvements since then but for the cost I don't think I want to try it again. Your husband may find his trial to be a completely different experience and I would encourage him to give it a try if your insurance will cover it...even if you don't have insurance Medtronic has programs to offer the unit at on a sliding scale. What does he have to lose? I can't stress the use of heating pads enough. The shoulder brace from Venture heat with a lithium ion battery has been a life saver for me. Please give him my best regards. PopPop