Hi Paul, nice to hear from you. I had my trial back in August, I was pretty nervous but it wasn't anywhere near as scary as I thought. The procedure wasn't painful and they play around with the placement of the leads until you tell them that it's hitting the right spot. For me my pain is confined to my left foot, but has been increasing for the past 20 years. When I had the trial we found that to get the stimulation down to my foot they had to position the leads so that I got stimulation down both legs, all the way down. However if I can get some relief from it I don't mind that at all!!
I'm not sure if Mark and Rae found the same thing but it was a bit weird moving from sitting to standing and again from walking and then stopping, I kept having to tweak the power of the stimulation - this may however not be applicable to you as I guess if you are getting the unit to treat back pain maybe the stimulation doesn't go down your legs? I'm not sure?
Anyway as I said these things aren't a problem and are a small price to pay for pain relief!!
I did find after about 5 days of having the trial leads in that I was getting better quality sleep. I was still waking up a lot but not to the extent that I am normally and I felt the sleep I did have was much better quality, which I think will make a real difference as well.
Try not to worry about it, I know easier said than done, but it is well worth doing and if you could avoid the opiates that would be a REALLY good idea. I take morphine and ketamine every day and they just don't work as well as they used to so my dose goes up regularly but there are so many bad side effects and you feel spaced out a lot!
Mark and Rae have been great support, I've asked many questions which I'm sure you can see further back in this thread. I'm sure they would gladly answer any questions you have.
It's well worth doing and I will keep everything crossed that the trial goes well for you. Are you based in the US?
I will let you know how the full operation goes and please update us on your trial xx
All the best
Rachel x