This may be as good as it gets for me
 

Went in and saw my rep. for a tweak, just in case we could come up with a program that we hadn't thought of or tried before as they were able to squeeze me in yesterday. I'm still having problems with upper back, muscle spasms, sharp pains, tightness etc.. At the end of the appt. he basically told me that he's run out of programs to try and that I just need to wait and see the pain mgmt. dr. next week and see if he has any ideas on what to do.

The rep. seemed pleased with the results I do have (as am I), and said that the areas I still have problems with may be unreachable. We try to reach them via the cervical implant, but the stimulation causes the pain to get worse rather than alleviate it.

He said there's an area they call the "dead zone", which is in the upper back/shoulders area, that they just can't get with either a cervical or lumbar implant.

Hopefully the pain dr. will have some ideas next week as this "dead zone" area has always been one of my main areas of pain. The rep. was trying to be very optimistic about the results I do have as he could tell I was very disappointed to hear about this dead zone and that it may not be reachable/treatable. Sigh!!:thud::thud:

The Zone
 

Aw Fiona, I was so hoping that a tweak might reach the Zone. Seeing your pain doc seems the only alternative now, since technology is not able to offer a solution for the Dead Zone. I will pray that your doc has something else up their sleeve of which none of us are aware right now.

:hug:z
Mark56

(((((Fiona)))))
 

I currently have a siatica issue we cannot reach with my SCS so I feel your pain:(. Maybe when I get my next unit we will be able to slip another lead in so that area will be covered!
Sending prayers!:hug:z

Pooh: I'm not so sure it's a question of another lead as I have leads over my entire spine given that I have two implants. My impression is that they can't get the coverage to reach the areas I need, as the cervical implant is designed mainly for arm/neck problems and the lumbar implant is designed for lower back/leg problems. They were actually quite pleased that I'm getting as good as lower back coverage as I am because the lumbar implant tends to be more for leg/feet pain, and they often can't get good coverage in the lower back area. Guess I'll have to wait and see my pain dr.

I'm going to go back to see my old accupressure guy, whom I worked with for years, and see if maybe he can help alleviate some pain. I was so hoping these two lil' gizmos would cover it all and I could stop living at doctors' offices!

Thanks for your prayers:hug:

Fiona your post is so spot on.

I have dreadful pain in my lower back and down my legs. Now the stim is great for that dreaded burning and stinging pain I get in both legs and up past my thighs but I just cant get past there to my back. :mad:

My Dr did say to me before that the stim is excellent for neuropathic pain in legs etc but not very effective for your actual back. Like you when I crank up the stim to reach my back, I get awful pains in my stomach, pulling and dragging feeling. Which of course is worse than the actual pain I have in my back. Although I am so grateful for what pain relief I do have. Its made me more relaxed than Ive ever been since this whole back issue started in 2005. In fact my '6th anniversary' was Monday the 7th Feb:eek: cant believe its been that long..........

I hope you can get some more relief from your accupuncture guy!:hug:

Hey Fiona!

I'm so sorry to hear about them not being able to reach that spot where you really need it. I don't know if you thought of this or not and I don't know if you have read my post about my Cervical implant trial or not but I had a problem with my trial because my spine was just to tight to fit the lead(even the smallest lead was to big to fit and it doesn't help that I have Kissing Spine in the area that I needed the lead to go) and so my doctor put the lead directly under the skin where the pain actually is. I am 80/20 meaning my left side hurts more then my right side so my doctor decided to just do the left side and if it worked then we could go with the permanent on both sides and placing the leads in a T formation on both sides. This may work for you. Just a suggestion since they can't seem to cover the cervical area that you need it to be doing the "regular" SCS implant. My trial turned out awesome and I got 95 to 100% pain relief.

I pray that they can find a way around this "dead zone" for you. I know it's aggravating knowing that your so close to pain relief and then you have to stop because of complications and no other options.

Gentle :hug:'s being sent your way...keep your head up. I'm sure they can find a way around this for you. Just have faith!:smileypray:

Treca

Thanks for your kind words and encouragement:hug:

I saw my accupressure guy yest. and he said my upper back/shoulders were very tight, so much so that it was pulling on my hips and one leg was about 1 inch shorter than the other...yikes, no wonder I hurt so bad. He did some accupressure (not accupuncture) adjustments and I felt a big relief in the tightness/soreness in my upper back. So I'm going to work with him for a while and see if he can get my muscles to loosen up and relax some more.

The flip side...of course, isn't there always one...is that I walked out of there with my lower back hurting! His adjusting up top affected my lower half, so had to turn up my lumbar remote. I was getting very disheartened last night so went to bed early, praying that the Lord would help me deal with all of this.

When I got up this morning I thought, what the heck, let's run through the cervical programs again and see if I can't find something that'll work. I reluctantly went back to my very first cervical program and lo' and behold it has been helping me quite a bit all day:D It was the program that I came out of surgery with and then it stopped helping around mid Dec. so I'd pretty much given up on it. I am sooo happy that it's helping now. Maybe, just maybe, it'll work for me again now that I'm getting unknotted by the accupressure fellow. Cross your fingers, toes and eyes for me, please:winky:

Treca: If this old program that I've gone back to doesn't do it for me I'll bring up what you said to my dr. and see what he thinks. Thanks for the info.!!

Croissin my Fingers
 

Since my toes don't work, so I'm sending all I can, that is, in addition to prayer for you that this works a long while.

Yep,
Mark56:hug: