I too was concerned about this when I got mine.....
but as the swelling went down....to be honest I completely do NOT realize my battery is there!
Took a bit of getting used to , but I'm wearing regular clothes again and life is getting better every day!

I doubt you'll have any regrets on the pocket location. Your Dr has put many of these in and am certain he knows where NOT to put them!
I truly do feel this is gonna be very very good, once this 'fresh out of surgery' feeling goes away......
You'll see.....

It's true as Rae stated, someday you will be able to be comfortable with pants around your waist. Although, with having the two implants, I did feel much 'bigger' than when I had the one (My surgeries were 6 weeks apart). The one thing I noticed, is if my pants are a little TOO SNUG, I will get nerve pain -usually in the form of sciatic- down my leg(s). No doubt the natural cushioning of the soft body fat is easier on your spinal column than the hard thickness of a battery implant

And, the placement of the battery is truly ideal. Especially when it comes time for charging it. I tell my husband and kids that they need to 'leave me be' while I relax in the recliner for an hour

Vanna

The Lidocaine patches are marvelous . Helps the incision pain sooo much. I cut one patch in half, and then into strips and placed a strip above and below each incision. The down side is that you can only have them on for 12 hrs., so opted for during the day so I can be a somewhat "normal" human being around husband. So, here I sit at almost 2 a.m., in pain, as incision sites have forced me out of bed...just so dang hard rolling onto other side without aggravating them...grrrrr.

Mark, I heartily agree with you about posture. The rep. told me that the cervical implant may be the same way as it was during the trial in that I would probably notice some type of change in the stimulation whenever I moved my head or neck in certain positions. He said that because the neck is so mobile (unlike the lumbar area), that I have to learn to feel unexpected surges in stimulation. I have noticed that keeping my posture is key to helping the stimulation keep at the right level cervically. In a way that's good for me as I can tend to slouch too much. I get "buzzed" as a reminder I need to get back into a good posture.

The twilight sleep, for me, has always been a bit hairy. When I had it 3 yrs. ago for my endoscopy it didn't work and I was awake through the whole procedure and the nurses had to literally hold me down while he stuck the camera tube down my gullet and looked around. I was NOT a happy camper about that, let me tell you. They didn't even find a license plate ...at least it would have been worth it if they'd found something interesting down there.


Well, when I heard it was twilight sleep for this procedure I made sure to let everyone who would listen know what happened last time I had anesthesia that way. Unfortunately, despite reassurances from the anesthesia guy that he wouldn't let that happen again, I did waken up several times through this procedure . I can remember feeling the pain of whatever they were doing and yelling out several times. They must have then given me more anesthesia because I fell back asleep. Unfortunately this happened about 3 or 4 times and I can remember one time trying to move off the surgery table, to get away from the pain, and they had to yell at me not to move. I don't hold any hard feelings as I know it's a tricky procedure to do, anesthesia wise. Keeping one sedated and then being able to wake them up when the surgeon says "Hey, we need to talk to her for a few minutes", and then putting me under again until he says once again, "wake her up for a while". Hate, Hate, did I say I hate twilight sleep.

Fever is getting better. Have started to notice some improvements for which the SCS's ("the twins") were meant to do: burning/aching in hips and lower back much improved, tricep pain gone, pain in inner knees gone, cramping in feet has reduced, and the overall pain/soreness I had from the surgical positioning has gotten better at a much faster rate than if I didn't have the twins in. So that's very encouraging even though still dealing with the surgical pain.

Again, thanks to the inventor of the reaching stick...I'm trying to figure a way to permanently attach it to myself so I don't have to keep looking for it....boy am I dropping a lot of stuff.

Signing off and going to watch some R2D2 until I feel sleepy enough to try to go back to bed.

Thank YOU! What a great update!
Sounds like things are going as a 'textbook case' <<<---that's the word they used to describe how mine went....... sounds so ..'formmmmal'
So glad the Lidocaine patch is helping!

Yeah, the 'Twilight Terror'....... oh my
I too felt completely 'awake'......comPLETEly ! Every time I whimpered 'ouuuuch'.....I heard doc say 'Local'....and he'd shoot more local anesthesia at the site he was working on.....
The thing my doc said that kept me from moving on the table was......"Keep dam still! Unless u want a CSF Leak" I've heard how horrible those headaches can be and how long they last.......boy you can bet your hiney I kept straight as a board and hardly even breathed! I stuffed my face into that wonderful little 'face pillow thingy' (which I insisted on bringing home as a trophy)

Well, it's all gravy now, my friend. You are on your WAY!

<<<----LOOK! i found a little 'R2D2' in my left pocket! How precious!

More healing coming your way, yea Fiona!!!!!!

Rae, where DO you find those things in your pocket??

Mark56

Got a few hours sleep last night even though incison sites still very sore. Having fun watching R2D2 (where did you find that,Rae?) Feeling a little less sore today once I was allowed to put the Lidocaine patches back on around the incisions. Am amazed at how much they knock down the incision pain. Have been able to back off on the pain meds. a little. Was able to take short shower. Had so much iodine (?) on my back, looked like self-tanner washing off. Note to self: Licodaine patches do not like getting wet and become mushy mess by end of shower.

Realized this afternoon that my rep. had given each remote 4 programs, so drove myself crazy trying to figure out which of the 8 programs works the best...two remotes are a little too much to play around with as I soon forget which programs are the best. Oh well, my follow up at 10 days will be when we really try to start fine tuning the remotes. Keep dropping stuff...what's a bummer is the times I drop the picker-up stick...how does one pick THAT up??? Do I need an emergency one, encased in glass, just in case I drop my first one again?

Haven't zapped myself yet due to the remotes having little stickies on them. Found the temporary "do not go through scanning machine" cards. I'm guessing they'll mail me permanent ones? Looking forward to the day of regular bowel movements (this one's for you, Mark )

Signing off...R2D2 calls....

I had a moment of enlightenment!
Ok, don't laugh....but i was trying to figure a way you could potentially 'simplify' your remotes and tell me if this is possible? I don't know how the Boston Sci's are designed, but is there a way you could like put a rubber band around the both of them back to back? So in essence you'd have 'one' unit?
They would be facing back to back and the controls would be on each side.
Or not?
I use an extention with the antenna thing that reaches to my battery site (left behind) and hold the controller with my other hand. Is yours like this?
So, I thought with 2 units, just tape (or rubberband) them together and then you'd have your 2 antenna things hanging from them.....

AND during my time off while recovering I just found the biggest pair of 'fatpants' I could find (sweatpants) WITH pockets and walked around the house with my controller in my pocket, my cell phone in the other, and that seemed to be pretty self-sufficient.
And maybe this would make it easier on you and you won't drop things as much perhaps. I dunno.....
Just a thought

Sooo, which episode are you on? R2D2 .... that could be a good name for your remotes

Would be easy to Velcro the remotes together. They only need access in the rear to change to AA batteries which run each remote, and they last a LONG time. Even so, the remote needs to be identified as to whether Cervical or Lumbar, a simple labler at the office supply would do. Heck I would make Labels and mail them if had an address. But the use of different colored sticky dots would do just fine too.

Now, even in a med induced haze of post surgery, you can keep a note pad to note the program for each area and the intensity most pleasing, then as you develop more acuity with the program use, time will make it old hat. This will pass. Don't give your remote to R2D2, or you might wind up with some transformer wannabe.

Still Praying for healing and that rest becomes more easy,
This will pass,
Mark56

Been playing around with the different settings and now have myself totally confused...which one DID work better??? I think I've been given too many choices and I'm just confusing myself here. Another problem I'm running into is that the cervical leads can also affect my lumbar area, so hard to tell if it's the cervical leads that needs to be adjusted, or the lumbar leads themselves as my lower back is pretty sore.

Going to call my rep. and see if he can just get me back to the lumbar and cervical programs he had me on when I was discharged from the hospital as they seemed to work pretty good. While one surgery for both implants was better infection wise (and certainly money wise), I think it would be less confusing to have one implant put in at a time. That way I would have had time to work on one area of the body rather than both at the same time.

I'm carrying the twins around in a small make-up case I have that I've never used. Is my favorite color, blue, and is easy to carry and looks pretty too. It also has a couple of pockets inside and I've got my temp. "do not go through airport screener or get nuked" cards in them. Keeps everything in one place and is more pleasing than carrying around two black, bulky objects. I have a sticky on the front and back of the cervical remote, so I can easily identify it from the lumbar one.

I'm at the part where in the saga where Senator Amidala and Anakin Skywalker have set off to rescue Obi-Wan Kenobi after he followed the bounty hunter who tried to assasinate Senator Amidala (no, I'm not that good of a speller, I just read the names off the cover )

However, I am frustrated in that I have yet to come across an opportunity to use the "picking nose smiley" so, with your kind permission, I'd like to use it now ...here goes... Ahhhh...I feel better now. I think I have too much time on my hands now that I'm no longer allowed to pick things up off the floor.

Now that just takes the "cake" a perfectly placed BM comment and I walked right by it!! Oh well...... Hey, by the way Fiona, do you know what happens when you STOP taking morphine???? Ha Ha.....

Permanent cards will come, nice BLUE color with the Boston Sci name and all sorts of data about how you would be advised to avoid the airport scanner stuff and huge electromagnets [well, nothing like in a wrecking yard anyway]. I got two, gave one to Cleo in case I happen to be knocked cold and someone has a brain @#$% about giving me an MRI test to check me out. Nice heavy plastic will last beyond our bodies type cards. We could probably use them to break into 007's office or something like in the movies.

Doncha be picking anything up!!!!! There, I said it.
Heal well,
Mark56