Quote:
Originally Posted by sdfailedspinalfus
  Hi All! I'm so happy to have found a place where people can relate to me and my chronic pain. I'm a young mom, newly-wed, disabled (yet denied SS disability), and in constant pain in my lower back down my entire L leg. I had my fusion May 2009, after many other attempts at pain relief: medial branch blocks, epidurels, trigger point injections, PT, narcotics, etc. Unfortunately, the fusion felt great for 6 months, then the pain came back and worsened, now my upper back above gets super sore from time-time. I'm sinking back into depression as my SS disability was denied, my year of state disability ran out, and I can't sit or stand long enough to work. I have no financial backup's at all, and I can't offer my daughter or husband any financial income at all. Anyway, after the fusion stopped working, my spinal Dr. said he didn't want to "go in searching anymore" or something like that. He passed me onto the UCSD Pain clinic again for alternate pain relief. Now Dr. Mark Wallace at the Pain Clinic says my only hope for my exact case is a SCS (spinal cord stimulator). I'm extremely fearful and need others stories for more opinions of how it has / or has not worked for you...I want to go back to work, but don't see that happening anytime soon. I want to have another child, has anyone had a child after the SCS? I want to get off all these yucky narcotics (I'm on 120 mg morphine daily) and percocet (as needed), has anyone gotten 100% off meds, too? THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR INFO AND ADVICE in advance!  |
Hi, I am so sorry to hear about your pain and everything that you have been through! This community is really good and everyone understands what you are going through, we are really more like a family
I understand that you are scared to have the scs or stim put in because I was the same way when I got mine back in 2008. Prior to that, I was injured in a car accident and in constant pain in my back and down my leg to the point I would have trouble walking. I was on alot of meds and they tried different procedures and I even had a part of a herniated disk removed but things kept getting worse. Finally, I had the trial scs and it went so good that I went ahead and had the permanent one. Now I have had 3 surgeries for my stim and I am so glad that I did. After surgery I ended up off all my medicines and could walk without using my walker or cane, I was able to walk all over campus and resume my classes again. I actually did a presentation about it because it had helped me so much and people could not believe the transformation! It worked so great that I was even able to exercise and do all my normal activities again.
I did end up having to have other surgeries because sometimes you have to have revisions due to leads moving (I ended up having a bad fall last year) and I also just had surgery in November to change my leads to paddle leads which was a more involved surgery than the regular per-cutaneous leads are but I am very glad that I did it! After my fall, my stim was not working right and my condition got so bad that I ended up in a wheelchair for most of the time, had to drop out of college for a little while, and was in constant pain in my back and legs. I really believe that having the stim is what gave me my life back and that after I heal up I am going to have my life back again!
I also just got married in May and I was having such problems we had to postpone our wedding. I cannot have any children, so I can't answer that question for you but it would be good to talk to your doctor about. Also, make sure you have a good doctor that you trust and can ask questions because I have had to change my doctors and it turned out so much better in the long run! I hope sharing my experience has helped a little bit and feel free to ask other questions because everyone is very nice and helpful! I have to go now but I check in often so take care and I hope that things get better for you!
Tara