I am so sad to learn your SCS has been truly disappointing to you. You question whether your doc should have tried a TENS unit on you first, and I find myself knowing in the practice through which I travelled all of the steps one of the intermediate steps of care was the issuing of an interferential stimulator unit to me [a so called TENS unit on steroids] which I used faithfully prior to being ultimately recommended to give SCS serious thought.
That stimulator never worked all day for me as does my SCS, so I would regularly be recharging the unit and could not use it as it recharged. The stim electrode pads were gummy [kind of like placing a moist Gummy Bear candy on my body] so as to adhere to the skin, and wires connected the whole works. I would walk around with the base unit in my pocket, electrodes on my skin, and wires coming out the waist of my pants and disappearing into a pocket. Unfortunately they regularly CAUGHT on obstacles, but it was good having that unit working when I used it. The maximum back stim program was 20 minutes in length, followed by reactivating the stim unit.
If, and that is a big IF, this unit works for you, then go for it, and I very much hope you may have found a solution!!
In the meantime, I'll pray.... can't hurt,
Mark56
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