I understand your questions about coming off pain meds. I, too, am wrestling with that issue. What doesn't help is that my surgeon who did the implants is having my PCP do pain mgmt. Unfortunately when I saw my PCP the other day, he was rather bothered by the fact that these implants haven't gotten rid of my pain 100% and started going on about how he never would have approved me getting them etc. etc. had he known I would still be in pain a month after surgery.

So, I had to explain to him, AGAIN, how the whole thing works (ie, get pain reduction but no guarantee will be 100%, the need for breakthrough meds.). He reluctantly agreed I could continue to take a dilaudid a day, if needed, but that he's still not too sure about this whole SCS thing. I told him that, for me, the jury will be out until about 6 months, what with post-surgery pain, giving the leads time to fully scar in, upcoming physical therapy etc.

What Rae said is a good idea and is what I'm tending to do...I'm watching myself not reach for the meds. quite so often. Also, trying to turn up the stimulation instead to see if that will get rid of the need of reaching for medication.

Unfortunately I'm like you in that if I turn it up too high it hurts more than helps. I was at grocery store yesterday and started having a bad muscle spasm so turned the lumbar one up and was buzzing so strongly in legs that it felt very weird to walk and was actually a little difficult to walk. So, right now, I'm not sure about turning it up to get rid of unwanted pain or if I should reach for a pain med.

Sounds like we're in the same boat...thankfully we both have one oar, so at least we won't be going around in circles