Hello Everyone! After posting a couple of comments in Mark's Boston Scientific SCS thread, I figured I would start my own for a proper introduction. My story is long, so bear with me!

My journey to chronic pain started in 2004, after a broken toe and 4 Dr's - it was determined that I had a tumor in my toe called an aneurysmal bone cyst (ABC). This type of tumor is very rare, and is a benign but aggressive tumor. In other words, it is not malignant (cancer), but does grow fast, and is very destructive to the bone in which it resides. After many months of pain, I had surgery to scrape the tumor out of my toe, and pack it with a coral-based putty (hence my name - CoralToe). These types of tumors have a high recurrence rate, however they almost always recur within a year.....so as a couple of uneventful years went by, I thought nothing more of my toe.

Then, in December of 2009 (5 years from my tumor), I began having increased pain in my toe. Ever since my surgery, my toe acted slightly like a barometer - and was achey with pressure and temperature changes - but nothing too bad. This was different though, the pain seemed to be gradually getting worse.....and I was in denial. Finally, by Jan 2010 - I could ignore it no longer, and went to see a podiatrist (not the same one, as we had moved from Portland to Seattle after I finished Grad school)...Low and behold - my tumor was back, and was about 5x the size of the original. Back to surgery, to scrape out the tumor and pack it - this time with bone chips. Unlike the first surgery however....I never felt like I was healing, and the pain was constant. I will spare you all the details - but over the next year, I consulted with 4 different podiatrists and an orthopaedic oncologist - who all eventually came to the conclusion that the relapsed tumor had expanded the bone so much, that my toe was not longer in joint, and I had consequently torn my plantar plate on the bottom of my foot....I was referred to pain management in Oct 2010 (which I truly believe saved my life) - and was able to get the pain better controlled until surgery.

So, in Jan 2011 - I went back for a third surgery....this time more of a reconstructive/salvage job. My surgeon had to open large incisions on both the top and bottom of my foot, sew up the torn plantar plate and screw it in place, remove some bone from my toe and insert a pin to fuse it, and excise "the largest nerve my Dr had ever seen" from old scar tissue from the previous two surgeries. While recovery was long and arduous - I felt much better after this surgery, and hoped/prayed that my nightmare would be over.

As I had been on high levels of opiates for a few months, we waited until 4 months post op, and then started slowly lowering my doses. As I lowered my breakthrough meds, everything was fine. Sure, I had withdrawl symptoms...but no increased pain. Then we decided to start tapering my ER med (Opana ER). As soon as we lowered the dose (by a very small amount), ALL of my nerve pain came roaring back. I felt like the top of my foot was on fire, and the lightening was shooting out my toe. My Drs had warned my prior to surgery #3 that it was possible that I had nerve damage that would be permanent....and when the nerve pain came back, we all knew that this was indeed the case. This all happened this past May/June, so my pain doc has been doing her best to keep my pain controlled since then.

At my very first appt with her (in Oct of 2010, before surgery #3), she had brought up the possibility of an SCS unit. At the time, this scared me - as I was "sure" my pain was temporary, and that this was overboard to even think about it. She mentioned it every visit I had - never in a pushy way, but almost as a subliminal reminder to me to not give up if the pain did not go away. My pain doc is a doc of many "hats" - she prescribes meds, does injections, does ancupuncture and does SCS implants. In August/Sept I asked her for a few accupuncture appts - just to give it a try. These ended up not helping me, but during my last one she told me that she was giving a presentation about SCS implants to a handful of local MDs - and asked if I wanted to come along to listen. So, I rode along with my pain Doc, and her SCS rep, chatted with both, and got a very open view of the whole concept - from an MDs perspective (I should say that alot of this has to do with the fact that I have a PhD.....and most of my Drs treat me as a colleague and really listen to me when I have questions, concerns etc). By now I had also been reading a few forums here and there (this being one of them!), and decided that a trial was worth a shot....so we got the ball rolling.

I had my trial last week, and my leads pulled yesterday. It was an unbelievable success! I had not wanted to get my hopes up in case it didn't work, that by the time I had the trial placed - I had convinced myself that it was going to fail. I was very nauseous after the surgery, so didn't really get to play around with things until the next day....at which time I just stood in my living room in complete awe, shock and disbelief at the complete absence of pain! Day after day, my back felt better, and I pushed myself as hard as I could to try and make my foot hurt - and my little SCS unit kept pace the entire time. I begged my doc to let me keep the trial leads in - but alas they of course had to pull them yesterday. Within an hour my pain was back - which made for a very emotional night last night But - I now have a long-term solution to pain - and hopefully a means to lower some of my meds with a permanent implant. Right now, as long as insurance cooperates - I will have the full surgery on Jan 13th (happens to be Fri the 13th - which scares me a little). It will be a long 3 weeks, but I can handle that knowing that pain relief is on the horizon!

So anyway - I know this is a long post, but now you all know my story. I have read so many of your stories on here - and seen the comraderie between you all. No one understands chronic pain unless you have lived with it - and I truly hope to both give support to others on here, and also recieve support and encouragement from you all when needed

-Heather