Hi Neko! Good for you for doing your homework and asking around about the SCS! We are all different in how we respond to treatments. My dr recommended it since it was my last resort, I had to do some serious thinking on this one. I came to this site and read posts as well as posts/info on other sites. I had complete confidence and trust in my dr so I moved forward with it...so happy I did!! I have two of them, St Judes, one thoracic and one cervical. The "twins" were implanted last June at the same time. In November I had to have the percutaneous leads on the thoracic stim replaced with paddle leads because they moved. At that time I also had that battery moved because it was very uncomfortable...so much better now on my front/side! This "revision" was certainly not a failure...it was making it better for me!!

I had tried soooo many different treatments, nothing would help and I was losing the use of both my hands. Not good when you are in finance & human resources! The SCS helps me oh so much, my pain is not gone but it is greatly reduced AND I regained the use of my hands!!! The surgeries have not caused spread for me, only my clumsiness has...I keep hurting myself (not on purpose either).

So, I wish you luck in your search for information and your decision making.

Nanc


PS - I do not program my stims myself either. I have awesome reps who really listen to me that do the programming.