I officially have my second revision for my thoracic stim scheduled for March 14th. At least I was prepared that this was a likely possibility ahead of time so I can't say I was surprised.

The thing is that the pain in my back has been more to the left lately, in between the leads incision and the battery pack. My rep that I was working with today had the idea that she thinks it has something to do with the battery pack itself, and my doctor agrees that it's a good possibility.

So here's the plan: (1) They'll check to see if any of the connections with the wires to the battery pack are loose. Something may have become unscrewed a little bit, and this could be causing the pain. If so, all they have to do is tighten it and it will be very simple. (2) If that's not the problem, they'll move the leads up, waking me up and seeing if they can get rid of the pain while still getting the coverage I need. He said something about moving them up where they're tighter in the epidural space. But I might lose coverage in my ankle this way. (3) If this doesn't work, the final step would be to implant a whole new device. The good thing is that Boston Scientific has a brand new device that has 16 points on the leads instead of 8, which would give me a lot more options for good coverage so that wouldn't be problem. But it would be starting at square one again.

So since there is a good plan in place, I'm optimistic that some level of it will help me. No one still has heard of anything like this. But it's clear at this point the problem is not one that can be fixed by programming.

In the meantime, he prescribed me a muscle relaxer just in case that could do some good to ease the back pain when I have the stim on. So I'm crossing my fingers it can help.

I haven't heard the new 16 point leads mentioned here yet, and I know Mark was just talking about new devices that will probably be coming out. The rep said they put it in 2 patients so far at my hospital and both have had great results.

It is what it is, and I'll get through it, hopefully for the better. My first revision was a blessing with the good that it did, so maybe this one will be the same.