And a hearty WELCOME to you! We will nearly share the same "birthday" as mine will be a year old on 30 June!! I have been one of the successful stories among our forum, as I managed ultimately to withdraw from all pain management meds with doc's supervision. If you have any questions, pop them out and we will do our best to provide thoughts and answers to help.

The implant I had serves the lower half of my body as well. I feel blessed to have it.

Looking forward to knowing how your situation develops Melly!
I'll be around,
Mark56

Hi Mark Thank you for the warm welcome! So glad to hear that the SCS works for you, long may it continue, I thought i would let you guys know how my trial went in the hope it will be informative to some of you in a similar situation....I Had trial impant put in on the 29th June 2011, it went in really easy apart from a few sharp shooting pains whilst lead was being fed up through my spine! and a little pushing on my back. Getting the lead in was the easy part My surgeon only had to try twice to get the lead in the correct position, we found it the best at T7. The next step once the lead was in position was for the rep to find the best settings for the best coverage, this took a long time... for the first few attemps i could not feel anything at all even on a very high setting!!! i kept apologising for not feeling anything, after a number of attemps i began to feel the tingling sensation in my legs, buttocks and slight amount in by abdoman more to the right side! with a few more attempts and adjustments from the rep we managed to get approx 70% coverage (although a high setting was needed for it to cover my lower back and with that came more sensation in my lower legs(i do not have pain in my lower legs), my surgeon said this may have to be a compromise for the trial to get the coverage of my lower back).

Out of theatre and on the hospital ward i was given half hour neuro observations for 4 hours, and then had a visit from the rep who spent some more time with me going through some more settings and to show me how to use my new equipment, we were still unable to get stimulation just in my lower back and middle area without it running down my legs to my feet and once again it had to be on a very high setting!!!

So now bandaged up and at home that evening i felt extremely tired and quite sore so i topped myself up with my breakthrough meds and couldn't wait to use my SCS. The first two days i found it hard to tell if it was having much effect cause the incision site was getting more sore!

I found that for me to get the coverage i needed, i had to put it on a setting of 8 or above and sit or lie in a certain position, if i tilted my head forward the sensation would go altogether, if i tilted my head backwards it would increase, it took me the whole 5 days to find the best positions for me whilst on the trial (more programmes can be set when the full implant is fitted, they have settings for sitting, standing, walking, lying down etc).

I felt i wanted to have the trial for a few days longer as towards the end of the 5days the incision site was not so sore (although very itchy) so it made it easier to differate the pain, and id found the best position for me for the best relief

So day 5 and back to the hospital to have the SCS removed , this i found worse than the lead going in, for some reason it hurt like hell and i felt sick for ages after!

So my feedback on the trial was taken and all the details will be passed on to my surgeon, all in all i think for me it went really well i got approx 70% coverage and hopefully with the permenant implant that could be better with all the different settings and with the lead being more fixed, id say i had about 60% amount of pain relief and for the last two days of the trial i didn't need any of my breakthrough pain meds, i now have to wait for a follow up appointment in the hope i get a date for the full implant to be fitted (although there is a 3-4 month waiting list )

so thats my story so far! i hope by sharing it, it may be a help to someone! Im now of to have a long shower, my nurse dressed my incision site with a waterproof dressing!!!!! yipeeee!!!! Lots of Love to all who are in pain as we speak! Stay positive and strong and don't let it beat us!!!!!! Melly x

Hi Melly,

I'm Sinead from across the pond, I had my SCS implant last December (Medtronic) and so far so good for me, it's primarily for left side lower and left leg. I've had to have some tweaking recently and I too discovered that I needed a much higher setting to get my back some relief.

Have you decided to go ahead with the implant itself? Which SCS will you be getting do you know?

You're very welcome to our forum and there is lots of support here.

Best of luck
Sinead 

Hi:
I am new to the forum and have been looking for info re SCS and abdominal pain. I have had upper gastric pain for 5 years. After many tests, pancreatic proceedures, acupuncture, chiropractic adjustments and pain management I felt that there was no relief for my chronic pain. Last May I went through a week long trial with Boston Scientific SCS. My pain is intermittent and the week of my trail was not an especially painful week. Even with pain levels of 5/6 I could tell that this was a treatment that could help me. I am scheduled for my implant this coming Friday 8/5/11. I am excited and scared at the same time but can hardly wait. I have worked with top GI doctors at both Cedars Sinai and UCLA and they have had successes with SCS and abdominal pain. My leads will be attached at T6. Hopefully it will help you too.

Sandy Kay

May all you hope and expect from your rapidly approaching implant procedure be achieved. You speak of institutions which are highly respected and populated with doctors whose knowledge is top notch. My implant surgeon, an orthopedic fellow, taught at UCLA and speaks highly of it. He is one of my favorite people among my short list of favored ones who have treated me.

I was implanted with paddles at T8/T9 for low lumbar and leg pain due to permanent nerve injury. Gotta tell you I have been thrilled to have this blessing within my life for now over a year, and last night I was the singer for the family combo at my mother-in-law's 80th birthday celebration as she danced with each of her four sons. Being able to achieve that gave us the means to bring joy to her and a huge smile to her face. Priceless!

May it be the same for you,
Prayin for you too,
Mark56

Hi guys,

Ive just been reading through some of these posts again and yes I can understand how it can be difficult to understand how the SCS might work for abdominal pain but last week I was watching some TV about a teenager who couldn't pee. The doctor she saw suggested SCS to help her problems and apparently it worked. The leads were connected to an area near the coccoyx. So if SCS works for bladder problem why cant it work for abdominal pain, the question still remains how does it work, where do they put the leads, it obviously has to go along the spinal column somewhere and we know the CNS controls lots of things we dont even think about.

S xxxx

Hi Sinead, sorry its taken me so long to get back to you! I have decided to go ahead with the implant and its the same one as you are using the Medtronic, after the trial it seemed my pain that following week was worse than ever so i just can't wait to get my operation date! there is a 3-4 month waiting list but im hoping it will be done before Christmas. Im so glad the SCS is working well for you, i will keep you posted how things go Thanks for the reply Melly x

Hi Melly,

I'm so happy everthing worked out with your trial and you can now go ahead with the implant, hopefully it won't take as long as 3-4 mths, it's a long time to be in so much pain. I guess I was lucky I got mine all implanted within about 6 weeks. How long have you been suffering from this awful condition? If you fancy reading my story it's in my profile.... it's a long story!

My system works very well although I have a long way still to go. My consultant did tell me at the very beginning that it would take about 18mths to get the full benefit of the implant and so far he hasn't been wrong. I'll tell you about that another day.

In the meantime take care of yourself, are you working? if so how is that going for you, i'm trying to work full-time, I work in Admin at a University, it's tough going but I want do it.

Stick around, it's good to have you and we're a good bunch for those of us who need support and can offer support to others.

Later alligator,

Sinéad xxx

Hi Sandy Kay,

It's great to have you here and you are very welcome. I've just realised you had your surgery last Friday, I hope it all went well for you. You'll obviously be very sore for a while but hopefully you'll be getting some releif from the dreaded pain. Did you have leads or paddles and i'm curious to know what system you had implanted, either way the SCS in my opinion is the best thing ever and it has truly made a huge difference to my life, I had my medtronic implant last December so far so good but still a fair bit to go.

Please let us know how you are.

I look forward to getting to know you better.

Take care

Sinéad xxx

That kinda boggles my mind Sophie, that you were told it would take about 18 months to receive the true benefits of SCS. I reckon I just don't understand as no one in my group of docs ever spoke of any waiting time frame such as this. Is it possible it has something to do with the difference in our medical systems, given the number of instances of Trial in hospital followed a couple days later by the real surgery? It all seems such a rush in Ireland and UK whereas across the pond here we receive a one week Trial usually followed by scheduling the implant surgery. I just wonder whether the process on this side of the pond gives more opportunity to reach an effective conclusion.

Curious,
Mark56zz