Originally Posted by Leesa

Hi ~ I'm sorry you're having these problems. Spinal pain is awful, and affects all areas of your life.

I had the SCS implanted for 6 months -- I had to have it removed due to the fact that i didn't have enough "fat" content in my body to hold it in. It tried to work itself OUT of me. UGH. Anyway, you need to know that the SCS works best with nerve-type pain -- it isn't as good for mechanical pain. For me, I found that the stimulation actually made the sciatic nerve even MORE painful -- it irritated it more for some reason. I kept adjusting the strength of the stimulation, but it didn't seem to matter.

After I had the SCS taken out, my pain doc tried the morphine pump on me. That was WONDERFUL -- the drug goes right to the nerves and "numbs" them. I actually had a couple of days of being pain FREE. But THEN the doc said i couldn't have the pump because it was bigger than the SCS, and my body wouldn't hold it in. Which made me wonder why they tried it on me in the first place!!! DUH.

If I had a choice (and you may not) I would opt for the morphine pump. But that's just me. The SCS might work great for you. At least go thru the trial period to see if it does work -- but make sure during the trial that you give it a good workout. They gave me so many restrictions during the trial, that i didn't get a good assessment of pain relief. Then after having it implanted and after I got back to my 'normal' routine, I found that it didn't give me pain relief at all. So I shouldn't have followed their restrictions to the letter.

Best of luck, and let us know how you come out. Take care & God bless. Hugs, Lee