I was in my 40's when I had the trial and the implant of the MedTronic spinal cord stimulator. The trial went fine, but the representative of the company gave me SO MANY restrictions that I didn't get a good assessment of pain relief. She didn't let me do anything to speak of -- and i didn't know enough about it to know if she knew what she was doing! So I followed her instructiions to the "T."

Since the trial went fine, I had the implant done. That went fine, but I was finding that I wasn't getting any pain relief. In fact it seemed like the stimulation was actually irritating the sciatic nerve even more (the reason i had it implanted was severe sciatica) So they reprogrammed it several times, to no avail. It still irritated things. PLUS -- the darn "generator" was trying to work itself OUT of me, since I am quite thin. The corners of the darn thing were sticking out! So we had to take the whole ball of wax out -- the leads and everything. I now have scar tissue in my upper back where the leads were that gives me trouble. I had it implanted for 6 months. I guess i grow scar tissue quite fast!

I wish it had worked. Now every neurosurgeon I've seen, including heads of major hospitals, have deemed me inoperable -- and my only choice of pain relief is medication. And we all know how successful we are at getting proper dosages. Needless to say, I'm very uncomfortable. This has been going on for 26 years and Im very tired.

Best of luck to all who try the SCS. Most people have better luck than I did. But if you're skinny -- be careful! Hugs, Lee