Hey all! Its now been a little over three weeks since my surgery, and I got to say that while the surgical pain/soreness is getting better - I'm still pretty sore. Seems similar to my original back surgery recovery time frame - my back just gets tired and sore if I sit up for too long. Hopefully that will abate after a couple more weeks.

My foot however....is unbelievably pain free. I don't know how to explain this, but will try. I was laying in bed the other morning, and thinking about the day etc....it was almost like "Heather-before-pain". In other words, my foot didn't bother me, but rather, the buzzing/massaging felt good. It has been sooooo very long since my foot felt good. Day after day of work I would come home and sit on the couch, and not move - cause my foot would be in agony. I haven't planned activities after work in forever...for the same reason. Now however, my day does not revolve around my foot pain. I find myself slowly coming to the realiation that my pain doesn't have control of me anymore. Its........AMAZING

I have my monthly pain doc appt tomorrow - so am hoping to finally nab a copy of the video that was taken of my surgery. Given how much my back has been bothering me since surgery...I doubt we will start "The Taper Program" just yet. All I can do is hope and pray that my pain is still covered when I start weaning down....I want off this ****!!

Lastly, I was curious what everyone's take was on the costs of surgery. My EOB's went up on-line, and I gotta say, the surgery was so much more $ than I was expecting. I expected to pretty much pay my out of pocket maximum for the year...but man o man, both the trial and the permanent were about 3-4 times more expensive than I thought they would be! It surprises me how relatively quickly insurance approved the surgery, given this crazy cost.

Anyway - that's all for now. Will let you all know if I get my hands on the video

You are experiencing "Good news!" So, you join the buzzer club, foot doing better, instead of pain controlling you, you control it..... seems.... miraculous doesn't it? I pray all continues to improve for you, and that surgical pain, you know from experience it will abate to unnoticeable one day.... somewhere out there. THEN maybe you start the tapering down under doc's supervision. This is definitely something not to be trifled with and requires good oversight, even at home you need a gatekeeper to keep from falling off into the deep end.

Cost..... somewhere around $150K US I understand, but then there are the write downs, the plan pricing, the this and that until it is all so very confusing your head starts to hurt. All told my many surgeries have cost insurance a healthy healthy sum. From a car wreck..... I look forward to the future now. The past is analyzed, understood as best I can and fairly well documented here. A lot of bad has turned for the good.

Prayers for you,
Mark56

Excellent news about the relief of the foot pain! I know that just during the trials themselves I experienced such relief I pondered (briefly, mind you) not going back in for them to remove them 'cuz I knew it would be a while before the permanent ones would be approved and then implanted.

Yeah, it's expensive but I guess they figure that in the long run it's cheaper than constant office visits, paying for pain meds., and all the other costs that go along with living with chronic pain. I'm sure someone somewhere sat down with a calculator and figured out that it would save money in the long run or I don't think ins. companies would be so happy to pay for the stimulators!

Praise God for your pain relief. Now we need to know if you're going to give your buzzer a name, as some of us on here have. I have two, so mine are affectionately called "the twins". What do you want to name your new implant???

The group gave me this name, PJ. You can guess why

Mark56

Congratulations Heather!

This is what makes the day for a fellow buzzer!
The cost - yah. wow. Mine was 100,000K.....and I actually felt 'guilty' about it! Our healthcare system is in the cesspool and I felt as tho I was contributing to it. That shows you where my self-esteem was.
Like you, my insurance approved right away and there was very little PPO write off. I was amazed.

I'm so happy for you!
I hope your back pain eases up soon

Rae

Great news indeed

Yep it is expensive but hey.....isnt that was Private medical insurance is for!????.....well here in Ireland that is....not too sure how US works......but here if you have Private Medical Insurance(an expensive outlay I might add)then its NO PROBLEM to have the SCS implanted apparently. Whereas if you want to have it done on the HSE (our healthcare system) ie, public......then thats another story. The public hospitals wouldnt have the funding in a lot of cases!!! So no Rae you shouldnt feel guilty if you have private insurance and THEY pay for it...........

good day

it is sooooooooooo wonderful hearing
the immediate relief of pain
after surgery the instant relief
i remember what that felt like
please oh please take it easy
your surgery successful
you certainly want the
healing just as successful
soooooo good knowing the
annoying keep you up
better yet wake you up
pain GONE
i wish you lots of game
playing catching up to do
friend

Thanks for the info about posting the video. I will see what I can do to host it somewhere, and then share the link!