Dear Abbie-

I was originally supposed to receive the ANS EON mini by St Jude and had researched it thoroughly in advance of showing up for my Trial Surgery only to learn within the hour prior to surgery that this smiley faced young man walked into my prep room to introduce himself as my rep and, oh, by the way he was from Boston Scientific. I was suddenly in lawyer mode about to go through the roof and cross examined the fellow before anyone proceeded to stick something into my spinal cord space.......

That behind me, I had performed such complete research on the St Jude model, I knew going in it was similar in many respects to the Boston Sci unit with which I was implanted. In my doc's office I had actually seen the specimen implant, realized it was about the size of the Boston Sci, which is about the size of a silver dollar by diameter and three thicknesses thereof. The wiring harness between emplaced computer/battery unit consisted of two wires which would connect to the inserted leads or paddles, depending on the selection made by you and your surgeon. The recharging unit was trasndermal, similar to my recharger for Boston Sci [that reminds me, I need to recharge this evening]. The remote control was a radio freq unit similar to a TV remote, again like the unit I have from the competitor.

I watched the DVD information disc my doc had for me pre-Trial, read every word online I could find, then resorted to speaking with a couple of actual patient ambassadors......... Now THIS is where St Judes has Boston Sci all beat in the marketplace. They planned and provided actual patients for contact via telephone or email regarding questions. THIS REALLY IMPRESSED ME, and you should take advantage of it as well. Both of the patients with whom I spoke were frank and forthcoming even to the point to discussing what about taking care of toilet needs post surgery. Boston Sci has earned an F on this point, even though I volunteered to aid them in this way, I believe they are far more concerned with selling shares in their company than patient care or preparation. Gee, my blog thread has seemingly become the source for physicians to refer their patients if they are considering Boston Sci....... not so good for an up and coming durable medical equipment manufacturer.

St Judes regarding the coverage of lower body trauma and nerve issues was going to be the same as I have come to experience with Boston Sci. The placement of the leads or paddles has everything to do with the targeting of the nerve bundles which address the extremities desired. Regarding myself, I have permanent nerve damage from L5-S1 throughout my entire legs. The surgeons selected T8-T9 space as the go to point for insertion as it would assure potentiality for coverage of the parasthesia affect [the numbing as it were of the nerve desired]. I have achieved programmatically coverage from about my waist down. Certainly, the St Judes model should be able to address this if surgeons, rep, and patient are all on the same page.

One cool thing I give an A+ for my rep was that he intuited my understanding around computers, so he sat me in front of a computer interfaced with my implant and guided me through programming my own bionics. SO MANY of the complaints I have read registered on this topic and the follow on tweaking and tweaking sessions that go on could be avoided resulting in diminished expense, cash outlay, insurance involvement if the patients were ALL allowed to program, with guidance, their own bionics. Use of the stim is hyper-subjective and ONLY the patient knows and understands how certain stim affects portions of their target zone, and whether it is effective or pain producing. If you have any control over this aspect, demand personal involvement with hands on control of the programming. I have four programs in my unit which I established and have never needed a tweak session since my permanent implant surgery 30 June 2010.

From what I understand, the durability and reliability of both products are about the same, and my surgeon implants several different models of product depending on pain doc reference, patient choice, and his professional opinion.

ASK questions of your docs, both pain doc and surgeon to get the most up to date information. Ask to speak with patients implanted with the device if you can, and definitely avail of the St Judes patient ambassador program. The video is a lot of hype and sales. The moments speaking one on one with a patient who has received the unit is GOLDEN.

May you truly be blessed with your experience as I have been,
Prayin,
Mark56