Hi all:

I have not visited in a while but I find myself needing your wonderful advice again.

Just a quick recap:

The act of nine pregnancies and deliveries took a toll on my back. The sciatica became unbearable and about four years ago, after all conservative measures failed, my doc performed laminectomies on L4-5 and L5-S1 disks which had herniated.

It helped with my back pain but did nothing for the sciatica. So after another two years of physical therapy, epidurals, pain meds, etc., my doctor recommended the stim.

The trial worked great so I had it done in late July of 2010. I had probably 90% relief. I had my life back! (BTW, the "minimally invasive surgery" and quick recovery is a bunch of b.s. - that surgery was brutal!)

Fast forward to Feb of 2011. I had some issues with pelvic prolapse and had three surgical procedures at once. They removed adhesions in my abdomen, did a rectocele and cystocele repair. They suspended my bladder with a mesh material.

Ever since then my bladder has not functioned correctly. They did a second surgery in April to loosen the mesh, but that did nothing. So I have bladder retention, urgency, etc.

Since the February surgery I feel that the coverage has changed with my stimulator. I lost all coverage in my foot which was the worst of all. I'm seeing a new doctor at a university hospital and she has me going for pelvic and low back therapy. I'm now on my second bladder and kidney infection because of the retention.

My rep from Medtronic has tried to adjust the stim to get coverage back to normal. I've had probably 5 adjustments since Feb. When they adjust it now I get zapped in my abdomen and even my elbows. That has NEVER happened before. I had an x-ray which really did not show any migration but he said based on symptoms and where I'm getting zapped, there is obvious migration.

I saw him yesterday and he was able to get a bit of coverage into my legs but it is weak and basically useless. There is no foot coverage and no low back/butt coverage. I'm now having some low back/butt pain again. I am gimping around because of my sore foot.

Okay, sorry this is so long but I want to give as much info when asking the following questions:

Did any of you experience lead migration where it was working fine one day and out of whack the next? It would seem that once it's scarred in place it should stay put.

As part of the PT, the therapist has been doing some heavy duty back massage. At the end of those sessions my sciatica was so bad that the stim didn't help at all. Could massage cause lead migration?

Could either of my pelvic surgeries cause lead migration?

Have any of you gone through the revision? I have the paddles in my back.

Is the revision surgery like starting over? What's involved?

The Medtronic rep is talking to my neurosurgeon on Friday. I'm just beside myself.

Thanks for "listening" and any help will be greatly appreciated!

Mary