Thread: St Jude SCS
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Old 09-09-2011, 10:38 PM
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Rrae Rrae is offline
Grand Magnate
Rrae's Avatar
 
Join Date: Nov 2009
Location: i thought it was in my left pocket
Posts: 4,117
10 yr Member
Heart Hi Abbie

No such thing as too many Q's! The more the better. It seems like Dr offices tend not to give very much info. At least that's how it was for me. It seems as tho they become complacent because they are always doing this procedure. I think they kind of forget that this is something brand new to us and somewhat bizarre! I spent SO much time online trying to find out stuff about the SCS - boy was I glad for this site! Before we got this little forum, the RSD folks were very helpful in sharing their experiences and suggestions.
I am ever grateful for that.

AS far as the sensation... they can program so many different types of settings. And to boot, you will have the option of turning your amplitude higher or lower. To me it kinda feels a little bit like it does when your foot or leg has been asleep. That strange tingling when it wakes up.
Like Mark said, it's a wonderful tradeoff from the burning pain. And knowing that you have control over how much stimulation you get, makes it all the better. Sometimes it starts feeling a bit aggravating, so I turn it way down. In the mornings my pain level seems to shoot higher, so I turn UP the buzz.
Most of the time tho, I don't even realize it's on. And like Jackie has stated, it's VERY soothing at the end of the day to put my feet up, relax, and enjoy the stimulation.
The trial period is the perfect opportunity to play with the settings and decide which ones work best for you.
Since you are so sensitive to electronic transmissions, you'd probably do better with a lower setting and with the amplitude/pulse set at low. It can feel like a soft 'buzzing' with the pulse speed higher, or it'll feel more like a 'thumping' if you turn down the amplitude/pulse width.
Kind of an 'acquired' taste so to speak, but ANYthing is better than the constant pain.

I almost wanna say it's pretty similar to the TENs unit, but I haven't used one of those units in a long long time, so not really sure.

How do you fare with the TENs unit? Is that type of stimulation too intense for you?
Do you describe your pain as burning?
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"Thanks for this!" says:
Abbie (09-12-2011), anon21816 (09-11-2011), JoanB (09-10-2011), Mark56 (09-09-2011)