Hi Jo*mar - I was just going to ask if TENS was the same thing as stim (which we had at PT) then I saw your post - I guess they're different. I'll ask my PT if he also has a TENS machine - good idea. My daughter's pain doc gave us something called a Hivamat, which helped a little bit, mainly in keeping flares away. I think that's something different, though, but it's also an electrical-type thing.


Hi Brambledog,
re Calmare - I have a little different understanding about it and wanted to share a few links, since it was mentioned. My understanding is that although it's similar to a TENS unit, it's substantially different; different enough that it has its own unique and separate U.S. patent : http://www.uspto.gov/web/patents/pat...-20130219.html. Also, it's different enough that one of the most prestigious health organizations in the U.S., the Mayo Clinic, has several official clinical trials underway; here's one : http://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/N...rambler&rank=1 . These are both U.S. government websites; not Calmare sites. Anyway, whatever it is, it put my daughter into remission, and she didn't have to get a SCS! I'm still learning about and studying all sorts of different treatments (including TENS, which is why I started this thread), because I know we're talking remission, not cure, with RSD, but I do know that this treatment did wonders for my daughter.

Hi Az-Di,
My daughter was scheduling her SCS when we came across a mention of Calmare and tried it, so we know at least a little what you're feeling I wanted to pass on that the Calmare clinic in Mesa is now not charging for the first few treatments if it doesn't work for the patient (I live in Phoenix). Also, just another bit of info - a mom on another board I'm on said her daughther went into remission with H-Bot (Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy) treatments - that's another non-invasive treatment that you might want to give a try before the SCS. Best of luck! and please let us know how things go.

Could you guys please share a little more how the TENS works? Where do you put the pads (?) in relation to what is hurting the most and/or the original injury site? How often can you use it? Thanks for sharing - it's so good to get people's experience with things!

Pad placement depends on the area to be covered/treated. Sometimes trial and error on a case by case situation.

There is pad placement info on many sites & even posted around on our other forums, those can be found using the search link in my siggy.

"TENS pad placement" should bring up post or thread results for you.

For my ankle...I place the electrodes around the area that hurts. There are two wires and each have two electrodes at the end which you place across from one another. These are placed so the form an X with the area that hurts in the center of them.

I have found that I have to put the machine on a constant setting as opposed to one that is variable or pulsing. I have found the variable ones tend to cause flare ups instead of helping them. I set it at the lowest setting that provides relief and then increase the power as needed during treatment. I run it for one hour at a time but leave it on me (as in attached to me but not necessarily turned on) all day, turning it on as needed throughout the day for an hour at a time. It's usually several hours between treatments depending on what I am doing but I never run it more than once in four hours.

I do the same when I have a flare in my arms or another area...as long as the area is small enough that I can surround it with the electrodes like on my ankle.

Thanks Jo*mar; those are good search ideas. Will do

and thanks catra for your description; I find the actual user experience description really helpful. I guess I can just picture it better that way. I was wondering how, in a disease like RSD that covers large areas, one picks a spot. It looks like you find spots that are somewhat definable and then surround them with the electrodes.

Was it on this board or on the other one I'm on where someone shared that they leave the electrodes on their body like you do, but not for convenience; they leave it on because they live in a crowded city and don't like getting bumped (because it hurts) and found out that people give room to a person with visible wires coming off of their body!