Hi! I am new to your group and am glad that I found this forum before my implant surgery. My trial showed real promise so I have been looking forward to getting the Boston Scientific (paddles) implant. I have had a lumbar fusion from S1 to L3. I am hoping to delay another fusion of T10-L3 (major!). Yesterday I had the implantation. Shortly after being taken from Recovery to an Outpatient "private" room, I began having an excruciating pain in the area of my breastbone. My husband said it looked like I was having convulsions. They brought the Surgeon and Anesthesiologist back in and neither had ever seen this before. They shot me with morphine and when that didn't work they shot me with another narcotic... to no avail. The Boston Sci rep said the pain meds won't work if it's a nerve causing this. The event lasted about 20 minutes; luckily today I don't remember much about the episode. A seizure was ruled out, a heart attack was ruled out and an emergency CT scan showed that the leads had not moved. The Laminotomy was performed at T8. The pain did settle down but it remained with me for the first 18 hours after surgery (it moved from the breastbone to the bottom of my ribcage on my right front side). I believe something happened with a peripheral nerve at T8 on my right side. Has this happened to anyone on this forum? The scariest part is that the drs and nurses had never seen this before and the Rep said that this type of thing happens in about 30% of the implantations.

I would appreciate any of your thoughts on this reaction after surgery. It scared the dickens out of my family.