I am in day 5 of an SCS trial with a medtronic device. This is the first time in many years that I have not needed muscle relaxers, patches, etc. to reduce my lower back pain. I have some questions but I'll start with some background.

I had an L5-S1 anterior fusion in 2001 that cured the major instability and awful pain episodes but left behind regular lower back pain. After years of facet blocks, RFI blocks, physical therapy I have spent the last five years reducing my activity levels to reduce the onset of activity-related spasms and pain. For 2 years, lidoderm and flector patched helped but no longer. This year, I've been reduced to one day per weekend on pain pills/muscle relaxers to get ready to go back to another week of work. If I didn't find a better solution my future was to be narcotics and stopping my work as an IT manager.

After talking with my pain management doc, we finally decided to try an SCS. I got the Medtronic leads placed last Wednesday and I've had the first five days of no pain, no muscle relaxers, no celebrex, and no patches in at least seven years. I'm still taking ultram but since I'm well adjusted to that (after 11 years) I'm okay with it. I'm SOLD on the effectiveness of the SCS and I'm ready to go forward with surgery. I WILL get one of these things implanted .

I meet with my Neurosurgeon this Wednesday. He seems to favor Medtronic but I don't know why. For the trial I didn't have any preference; I just wanted to know whether it would work. Now I know an SCS will work for me I now need to know which system will work best for me. My pain specialist likes Boston Scientific but he doesn't install these things for a living. My Neuro seems to implant more Medtronics than the other brands.

Now for the questions:
Do I let my Neuro choose?
Do I follow my pain guy's lead?
How do I get enough information to make such an important decision?
Is there enough difference between the units that I should care?