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.

Hi MrsCJM and welcome to our group! There is much experience here, although I do not recall anyone mentioning a scenario such as yours, so I do not know whom to ask. My first thoughts are Rrae and PoohAC, due to their experience around these parts. Rae? Pooh? Are you out there?

This scares the dickens out of me too!! I am implanted permanently since last June at t8/t9 via laminectomy with paddles. Afterward, they were concerned apparently because I was not coming around out of the anesthetic as soon as they had planned [Apparently, I REALLY liked the place where I was in Lala land]. Finally I awakened, was goofy as heck, but then started to focus and remember my name. My wife was there. After a while, I was allowed to get up and walk, and I walked a LOT that day since I was wanting recovery, the stuff out of my veins, and the ride home to my bed.

NO ONE even suggested among the paperwork I recall reviewing pre-surgery that in 30% of such implants an occurrence similar to yours is possible. Seems like a pretty high ratio. I did not feel it, but goodness, could it manifest later? Wow.

Prayin for ya,
Mark56

Boy! What an episode! How scared you must have been!

I sure can't think of any particular cause of what you are describing.
Was your unit turned on when this happened.....and is the unit on now as you describe this pain moving down your ribcage? If so, perhaps the placement and/or settings of the electrodes are such that the stimulation is reaching around the front - like a 'grabbing' sensation.
I remember when I was initially getting my settings, the Rep asked me if the stimulation was reaching my lower extremities and I said 'yes'.....and as she continued turning up the amplitude, I said that it was starting to stimulate 'too much', as in - around my waist and that's when she said 'ok, then we don't want to go that far'.......

Does the pain stop when you turn the unit off?
If not, then perhaps it is possible that your dura was punctured and nerves were injured (as you have said)....... do you have a severe headache, as would be evident with a CSF leak?

I'm just throwing some thoughts out there......?.....
I guess the main thing is knowing if this pain is happening when your unit is on or off? If your SCS is on, then it would probably be something to do with the settings......
If you are in this pain and the unit is off, then it could be any number of things........of which they probably rattle off as they read you the 'small print' of the risks involved with this....(or any) surgery procedure.....

I wish you the best.....
Please keep us informed of what your medical team is doing about this....

Truly Caring
Rae

Recently, in manipulating my remote control higher and higher among the settings to overcome a pain spike, I actually transcended parasthesia, the intended effect of the device in impeding pain signal transmission to the brain, and produced a paralytic effect. Telling my doc of this, he explained that the device strength of use could be such that its signal would reach all of the way around the cord to the front where the nerves controlling lower body motor function, bowel, and bladder are located and affect the whole lot.

Precisely the effect I induced in using my stim to overcome pain since I have no other crutch, having withdrawn from all pain medications. I learned there have been no papers published on the topic I had quite by accident experienced, but doc was both concerned and interested that I had produced such an effect. His recommendation was more moderation in use.

As for me, I was glad when the proper nerve functions as my body now knows them were restored once I backed off of the signal strength after the pain had been brought under control.

Food for thought....... there is still much about which science or business know little when implanting artificial devices within the human body.

Careful,
Mark56

Thanks for the replies and thoughts on my situation. Rrae, you asked if my unit was on when the event occurred.... yes, it was since it had been turned on during surgery. Once this big pain hit me, they immediately turned the unit off. It remained off for probably an hour and a half before the Rep came back to my room and turned it back on. Having the unit off did not relieve any of the pain. The pain was unlike anything that I had ever experienced. I stayed overnight at the hospital for observation. I was seen by a Cardiologist who looked over the EKG, heart muscle enzymes etc and she promised me there was no indication of a heart attack (I was glad to hear that). The residual pain remained all day and most of the night. By my release from the hospital this morning, the pain was mostly gone. I made the decision to turn the unit off before I went to sleep lastnight...... just to give my shocked body a rest. I plan to leave it off a couple more days, at least until I'm over the surgical pain. I plan to do some research of my own to see where (or if) it is documented that the implantation can cause this type of nerve reaction.

I will post any interesting information that I learn from my research.
Ms CJM

We have another member here who I think might be of help.....
I've been reading the testimony of Patti_Christmas and see that she has described something similar......
I hope she sees your thread and will have something to share that may be of help......
I'll post a link to one of her recent posts describing her ordeal......and you can contact her via visitor message on her profile page or post on her thread here at this SCS forum......
Here is one of her most recent posts (if you haven't already seen it)......and as I read thru it, I see she describes a similar chest/abdomen/ribcage issue....

http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/post748971-2.html

This is very intriguing....and alarming!
I'm hoping you get answers very very soon!

Rae

Hmmm this is the 1st time I have heard of this but during multiple attempts to "reach" my SI nerve they have "inavertantly" triggered nerves in my abd and in my rib area. When I reported where the sensation was occuring the immeadiatly turned off whatever they had turned on (each one of my leads has like 16 electrodes along it). So maybe yhis is similat 2 what happened 2 you?