Thank you Mark I sure will;):D

Well, I went and had a massage and my massage gal, whom I've worked with for over a year now, off and on, said my shoulder and upper back muscles were very tight and she could feel trigger points to work on. The massage really made a big difference for me for a while, but later I felt the same old pain returning.

I'm beginning to wonder about the fine line we have to walk between the stimulators giving us pain relief when it's at just the right setting, and turning it up too much where it actually causes pain. I wonder if the overstimulation I do in attempts to get pain relif is actually doing the opposite...it could be it is affecting my muscles and the pain I then experience is muscle pain/cramping and not actual "nerve" pain. Makes me wonder since the massage helped and she said she noticed that I was very tight and knotted up.

So, I'm doing an experiment where I'm keeping the cervical stimulation very low and am going to work with my massage gal and see if the pain I feel can be alleviated by getting my muscles loosened up rather than my attempting to just ramp up the stimulation or go get tweaked again, hoping for the "ideal" progam to be found. Will let you know how it goes.

Anyone else have any thoughts/ideas about this concept?

Hi Fiona! IMO, I believe there is some truths in having overstimulation cause a tightness in our muscles. When I have the 'craving' to turn my stimulation higher, I make a point to lie down for a few minutes and remain motionless while the higher frequency is going, so I put less strain on working muscles. After a few minutes, I return the stimulator back to a lower level when I resume normal activity. Don't know why I've always done it this way..... just an instinct. Amazing what the subscoscious mind projects into your conscious mind!

Good Luck with your experiment. Will be curious to read your findings!

I think both you ladies are correct!
 

I agree with Vanna on this and you Fiona. I have often thought the same thing. It's like my dad and how he uses his TENS unit. He turns it up so high that he is working his muscle so much that he ends up so tight and in more pain. That is not the way to use a TENS unit. You want to stimulate the muscle/nerves but not get them working..ie. twitching and jumping. It just makes your muscles just that more tired and overworked by something that is suppose to bring you pain relief.

You guys whether you know it or not have been very helpful to me as I went through the decision to start the SCS trail. So thank you both for being a guiding hand to where I am today. Bless you both!:hug:

Treca

Y'alll would not surprise me one bit
 

The experiment Fiona is conducting may give us all insight into the better use and limitation of stimulation. I know that when I ramp mine up the highest I had ever had it to overcome a bad pain spike recently, I HAD to lie down as I no longer had control over anything below the waist. Using it thusly, the spike was overcome, I turned down the stim to more "normal for me" levels and the use of my legs came back online..... the pain spike was gone.

Interesting,
Mark56:grouphug:

My experiment continues...
 

I've heard of folks who have SCS units using "breakthrough meds.". Wonder if this is because some have found that turning up their unit caused more problems. Maybe we need to find the best stimulation setting, and if the pain goes beyond that then we reach, reluctantly, for a pain med. temporarily till things calm down. Maybe this is better than turning ourselves into the energizer bunny and being so stimulated that we can't drive or have to go to bed. Any thoughts on this:confused::confused:

I saw my massage gal last week and she did help quite a bit, so I see her again tomorrow. I've made an appt. to specifically see my pain mgmt. dr. in a couple of weeks. I decided to see him rather than go in for another tweak, because I want to know from him what I should expect/not expect this cervical SCS to do for me. For example, are the areas I'm still having trouble with due to my other health issues (ie, needing massage not more stimulation) or could the SCS unit help those areas if it's tweaked better. I know that getting good pain coverage is more art than science, as my reps. will tell me that, but it's still frustrating trying a new program in the hopes that it will help only to find I've made myself hurt even more.:eek:

Treca: good luck on your trial :hug: Glad we can all be of help to you. I know this forum has been a God-send for me!!

I really like your pain Doc, Fiona. I remember he said something that really made alot of sense when you were doing your trials......
Something to the effect of not pre-occupying ourself so much with the actual stimulation per se, but to try to center in on the level of relief we are getting........ ? Something to that effect.
It was simple and to the point. I wish I could remember where you posted about that.

One thing I realized (with my lumbar unit) was that if the intensity was too high for too long, it sparked a muscle spasm-type of pain.
Course, this also was when I was dealing with the migrated lead.
It's still too soon to tell, but I sure hope that by removing that migrated lead, I won't have the bad muscle spasm issues.

However :confused: today for instance....I had it on most of the day....and sure enuf......that lower back issue started happening. So I turned my unit off about 3 hours ago and took some BT med and put my lumbar belt on....and the back pain is gone.
So, I still can't determine where I'm at with this. It seems like the back spasm issues happen mostly when I'm trying to sit at my desk.....and they always happen when the unit is 'on' :confused::(:confused:

It's only been a week since he removed the bad lead, so everything is still tender down there.
But I guess what I'm trying to say is that yes, it does seem like it causes problems when too much stimulation is on for too long......
It seems to work best for me to do like you say.....have the setting on a lower level and if pain (the neuropathy pain) breaks thru, then take breakthru med.......kinda keeps everything more 'mellow', as opposed to the Energized Bunny from hell :) ...... and not only that, but sometimes I just literally get the feeling like I want to crawl out of my skin when the unit is buzzing too high for too long.

I dunno. Will we ever get this down to a fine art?

I'm glad you're going back to your PM.....anxious to hear what he says.
I was so impressed with the way he coached you thru your trials.

Ive said how sometimes I cant get the right stimulation in the right place and often the pain of the stim is worse than the actual pain when I crank it up. However...........now that I DONT have the stim on and NO sensations, boyyyyyyyy do I miss it!!:eek: Didnt think I would hear myself say that tbh.

But it definitely makes a huge difference to me, which I only really realise since its been turned off.:rolleyes:

Ive had to have breakthru meds still as the stim isnt covering up higher in my back.....but I do miss my butt buzzer...so roll on next week;)

Jackie:grouphug:

Rae: what he said was not to focus on the amount of stimulation one feels but to focus on how much pain reduction one is getting. He said some of his patients can have good pain reduction without even feeling the stimulation, whereas others need to have the stimulation higher, which he said tended to be folks with RDS...they even tend to sometimes need the stimulation very high to cover their pain.

The problem I'm running into is that my pain mgmt. dr. is not the one handling my pain meds., it's my PCP who's doing that end of things. And my PCP believes that now I have these implants I shouldn't need any breakthrough meds. at all, which leaves me at the mercy of getting all my pain relief from my implants.... I'm beginning to wonder if it's possible or even realistic to expect to get total pain relief just from the implants. After I talk with my pain mgmt. dr. in a couple of weeks I may have to go back to my PCP and set him straight on things:icon_rolleyes: