It is difficult for me to read and understand the scenario in which you have been advised by some caregiver that according to the law of the state of Arkansas you must undergo a surgery that MY doctors have told me is the ABSOLUTE LAST ALTERNATIVE IN SURGERY regarding a pain management situation. Firstly, were anyone to speak to me regarding whether state law requires a surgical procedure, I might be inclined to seek at least an initial legal consultation with a lawyer licensed to practice in Arkansas to confirm the reality of what seems to be a very severe statement.

Never in my wildest dreams have I been informed by any medical practitioner who has touched my body the law of the land requires I submit to any particular procedure. I will also disclose I have practiced law, although not in your state, for over 30 years. Thus, if I were faced with such a dilemma, I would ask a lawyer in my home state to tell me the law. For you, that is someone in Arkansas.

Next, I am a patient who has been through a significant number of surgeries suffered during an on the job auto wreck in an interstate highway. A number of years into my treatment, I was faced with the prospect, that is PROSPECT mind you, not legal requirement that the current last resort in pain management was my next step. You must know, however, that my history has been written with a significant number of varying treatments from medicinal, to chiropractic, to physical therapy, to acupuncture, to surgery, to deep tissue massage, among others. You see, the notion of medical practice as I have experienced it is to do the least harm to the human body while attempting to resolve the pain management issue at hand. Surgery of any kind was always a thoroughly questioned alternative to treatments, because invasion of the body by surgery always poses risks; thus, the care givers do their level best to treat without having to cut.

My story does include the final step of ultimately receiving the Boston Scientific Precision Plus Spinal Cord Stimulation therapy through surgical implant. Now, please, do know this is not a decision one takes lightly at all. The implant is ultimately invasive. The risk of infection is of the next consideration, and in my case was why my surgeon REALLY did not want me in hospital for an overnight if at all possible. I arrived at the surgery center appended to the hospital at 6am in the morning and by 6:30pm that evening had been discharged and was sent home with my wife driving the car to sleep in my own bed. It was no more comfortable than a hospital bed, but it was and is an environment in which I felt comfortable about contaminants and no infection resulted from my permanent implant surgery.

The goal one has in mind as they approach the decision for SCS surgery is of paramount importance to any practitioner who ethically seeks to offer it as a treatment alternative to their patient; namely, what do you seek and expect from such a treatment? As for me, I was seeking a means to relieve and manage pain without the mind numbing medications which had disrupted my practice so traumatically and pretty much caused me to sleep most of the time while also having hope that such a surgical intervention would provide a means to resume some of the LIFE I had lost due to the overarching trauma of the wreck and follow on pain.

You are welcome to thumb through the thread I have regarding Boston Scientific's alternative for me by going here for a more complete story of my situation http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/thread117854.html and if you have any specific questions of me, I will happily do my best to help you with them. Am I happy to have had the surgery done? Absolutely! Without a doubt! I have withdrawn from all pain meds and am actively engaged in efforts to rejoin my profession. This DOES NOT MEAN I NEVER FEEL PAIN, and if anyone TRIES to tell you otherwise I doubt the truth to their statement. I do feel pain, in fact, I feel it right now as I am typing this response to you; however, I know in a few minutes I will be able to shift my position and turn up the energy on my program to overcome the power of pain.

MANY folks are likely to chime in on your question to provide help as best they can, as we have developed into a world wide family of people striving to do our best with the pain that binds us. As for me, I often have friends now tell me in person they can see it in my eyes that my pain no longer has control of my life as it once did. I feel blessed.

I'll be around, and pray for you as well,
Mark56