Mine is on 24/7 at a low level. I charge when it gets down to one bar. About every 4-5 days.
Helps keep my abdominal pain at a 4 or a 5. What a relief from 8+.

Sandy

Mine runs 24/7 as well.
Uh huh,
Mark56

Well Yellow, I'm still playing around with this. There's definitely something to it tho. Like you describe, the spasm stays constant once it has set in. I usually had my unit on like Mark does, 24/7. There never seemed to be any rhyme or reason why my spasms would set in so bad.
The one thing that WAS certain to happen was if I STAND for over 3-4 minutes, the spasms come on strong. I can't sit on the floor, spasms kick in. (this is when the unit is ON)....
Now that I'm experimenting around, I'm seeing that I still get spasms, but not NEAR as strong and I can fend them off much easier when unit is off. Also I don't seem to be getting spasms (as bad) while sitting at desk when unit is off. All this time I had the unit on 24/7 I'd constantly be battling spasms while sitting at work.

Rewinding time back to when it was discovered that one of my leads had come completely detached and was just curled up at the base of my lumbar, this is when I started having trouble with spasms. I'm pretty certain that lead was laying down there for a significant amount of time (6 months) before I finally insisted on getting an xray to see what was going on. We pulled the lead out at that time and didn't replace it. I only have one lead and it actually covers both legs, go figure .

We'll see what happens as I continue on with this.
I do remember reading somebody's testimony about spasms after getting the implant. His Dr said that unfortunately some people have this problem and regret having got the unit. I certainly don't regret it. I couldn't take one more day of that constant burning.
I'm just hoping to find some sort of balance in this. I know it has to be there!

I'm sorry your other program is starting to get worse. Man, does this ever come full circle I wonder??? We continue to deal with it all for the sake of pain relief.


Rae

Oh, Nanc! I didn't know that you too battle these @#$%^& things to this degree also! This is really wierd that you also notice that the spasms let up when you're off.
I had no idea that this is happening to others as well! We should start a whole new thread on this to see if there are yet others who are in the same boat.

Rae

Rae and Nanc, as sorry as I am that you are both going through this, and I'm really sorry, I do feel a little better that we're all going through something similar and I'm not the only one.

Rae, maybe you could try a reprogramming session? It may not help at all but it could be worth a try at least.

Playing around with the different programs I have now, I'm realizing that they cause pain in slightly different spots. Some are right at the middle where my incision is, and some are over a lot more to the left, either in between my incision and battery pack or right below the battery pack. I'm not sure if that makes things more confusing or less confusing, but I'll see what my doctor thinks about it on Tuesday.

Wow. Well, I've had my unit off ALL day.....and absolutely NO burning pain in legs.....and NO spasms!
Course, I AM on my pain meds. But, I've always been on my pain meds before all the while battling many breakthru issues and spasms and such.

Mark mentioned something in his other thread about his Dr saying that after awhile, many patients can do withOUT the unit. Mwah? So, does this mean that the RSD/neuropathy is going away???
Still got alot of experimenting to do before getting any hopes up too high.

This is very very interesting to say the least.

Rae

Some patients finally experience regenerative neuro restoration. Body is capable sometimes, as I was TOLD so many times after the trauma and back surgeries...... Thing is, in my case years of nerves being discombobulated has left pain as a constant only managed now by my stim.

Told him I would try. As you know, dear Rae, I will and do try..... doesn't mean his wish will come true.

So, I may be in the Pooh club of having units replaced over time as they wear out. OK by me if they can just hook in to the cabling for my paddles... but then, engineers being what and who they are nearly ALWAYS redesign the connectors with a new generation.... so, do you suppose they have to replace the whole works if a generator goes kaflooey? This I would not like.
Pain, the final frontier...... the voyages of the patient through stim removal and replacement.... I hope mine lasts until the day God taps me on the shoulder and says "you've had enough my child."

Uh huh,
Mark56

You know, having to have my unit off a lot more lately because of the pain, and having to have gone through this once before too, I've noticed that the more I go without it, the less awful burning I have when it's off. I never really thought about that til I read your post.

I mean, I still have pain without it, no doubt, but the severe burning actually seems to be worse when I use the stim more often, considering I never have it on 24/7 due to charging issues. Definitely very interesting.

I really do hope that this is some kind of good sign for you, Rae!

Mark, I'm not sure if they could replace the unit while keeping the leads? It would be nice, though!

Sounds as tho we BOTH may be on to something here.
It's too soon to tell tho.
I've been very busy at work getting rid of old files. Still a spasm or two will try to set in....but I've got my unit OFF.
I've only been sleeping with it on, for the soothing relief, but once I'm up and active, I turn it off to see if the nasty spasms will soon become a thing of the past.

One can always continue to hope yes?

One can always hope.