I'm looking for those of you that have had a scs by medtronics installed recently I would like to pick your brain if you don't mind.

Here is a little background on myself.
More than 20 years ago I fell 40 feet from a rooftop hit the ground and bounced about 2 or 3 feet in the air I was told. After about 45 minutes or so I was able to get up with some help of course taken to the hospital x rayed for broken bones and they found nothing supposedly.
Fast forward 20 years.
I had enough of the pain and back problems such as back would go out and would take about a week to 10 days before I was able to move properly again.In May of 2009 I went to see a nuero doc told him everything that happened 20 years ago and all the problems I had been dealing with since. He immediately set an MRI up that day for me it was on a Friday and Monday at lunch time while I was at work he had called and said he found my problem and needed to see me as soon as possible told him I could see him after work today. I was working in a factory here in western pennsylvania and the job required a lot of heavy lifting it was working with large sheets of steel this was in 2009 and layoffs were very prevalent at the time and I had been informed I was going to be laid off this was right after I had met with my doctor. I went into the office at work and told them I would take an early layoff because I needed to have surgery anyway. I was laid off at the end of the week and had surgery the following week.
When the surgeon went into my back it was worse than he thought I had been living with a ruptured disc for 20 yrs at L4-L5 and it had been like that for so long that calcification had formed on one of the nerves my to left leg which he had to cut away. Surgery went well and a couple of months went by and I went back to work but this time I decided to put my CDL back into use and found a small trucking company privately owned and was doing really well.
Then the morning of December 28th 2010 I was getting ready to go back out on the road after being home for Christmas Vacation My wife had taken me and my luggage to the truck and I was on the top step of my tractor trailer and my wife was passing me my last duffel bag of clothes and I slipped on some ice that had formed on the top platform where I was standing and fell to the ground onto my right side. Instantly I knew I had re injured myself I had pain in and around the surgery site radiating down my left leg. My wife helped me up off the ground she reached in and shut the truck off dialed my dispatcher from my phone told him what happened and that she was taking me to the hospital were my surgeon worked so he could take a look at me. She then called my doctors office who paged him and he met us at the emergency room he had already arranged for me to have another MRI as soon as I got there. After reviewing it he came in told me I was going to need another surgery I had reinjured the same area but this time it was pinching some nerves. Post op 2010 I did not fair so well. Was still having a lot of pain in my lower back at L4-L5 and down both legs at times .
I have tried facet injections,water therapy,regular therapy,nerve blocks,steroid injections the whole gambit of things that doctors want you to try before they tell you that there is nothing else they can do for you and send you to a pain management office . Since then I also have been told I will never drive truck again and had to turn in my CDL . I was put on disability. Then I met Dr. Zimmerman of the pain clinic we had been over all kinds of different drug's and most of them do not work if they do I look and feel like heroin addict and told him I will do without. So he finally suggested a medtronics scs device but up till now I was not able to do anything about it because my disability insurance had not kicked in because I had not been on disability for 2 years at the time. As of June my insurance kicked in and he brought up the scs device again for me . So in September I am scheduled to see doctor down in Pittsburgh at upmc to set up a trial. I would like to know how your trial went ? and if you decided to have the implant down permanently? if so how has it been compared to the trial ? I'm sure I will have many questions if you don't mind ?

Thank you for taking the time to read all this.

I don't have Medtronic. I have St. Jude eon minis (two) for crps/rsd in my extremities. They work really well. I wish I had a lumbar lead as I have developed spread since the surgeries into my back.

I hope someone will chime in that has Medtronic to help. I believe they are all about the same. I love mine. Without it, I don't know where I would be.

That accident sounds terrible, and I hope you are able to get your pain under control. The trial was very easy to me.

Anyway, just wanted to say that it never hurts to try and most everyone here has really good luck with their scs. I had such good luck I now have two haha.

TK

Welcome!
So sorry about all you've been thru, mercy. You've certainly come to the right place to get good feedback and support.
As you read through these posts, you'll get a pretty good view of testimonies, both good and not-so-good.

A lot depends on which type of pain condition is being treated. I'm on year 3 of my Medtronic SCS. Mine does a fantastic job of covering over the burning neuropathy/RSD pain in both legs. The soothing stimulation (think 'kitty purring' ) sure is nice compared to the constant burning pain.
Did you get any relief at all from the SNB injections? I had short-lived pain relief which was a good sign that my sympathetic nerve chain would respond to what the SCS has to offer, if of course the leads were placed exactly where they needed to be. This worked out great for the nerves that run down the legs. I do get some relief in my lower back as well.

If you've got the green light from your insurance, then certainly go for the trial!
This will give you a good idea if this is for you. Sometimes the permanent may not have quite the same outcome as the trial did. In a lot of cases, a few repeat visits are required to tweak the settings. This is normal. The recovery time depends on how well you follow the post op rules. It's crucial that you don't bend, reach, twist or lift things until your leads have had a chance to scar into place. A revision is necessary if a lead migrates due to not following these rules to a 'T'....... (guilty as charged ).

Ask as many Q's you want. This is a big deal, so it's important that you feel well-informed. Also very important that you feel confident about your Dr.

It's great to have you!

Rae

I did get some relief from the SNB injections all though it was short lived maybe lasted a week or a week and half at the most. As for the green light from my insurance I'm looking forward to the trial and first meeting this new doc. My wife on the other hand is scared that something is going to go wrong (because of the restrictions) but I told her I want this to work for US so I will do anything to get rid of some of this pain. She also is have problems at L4 & L5 right now .

Did not know that was possible to have two implanted ?

I am not "new" to Medtronic SCS. I am currently on my 3rd unit. I burned though the first SCS I had. My second unit was not a rechargeable unit. I took a nasty fall and "jerked " my leads lose. ( I fell so hard I dislocated my shoulder ) I am currently on a rechargeable unit I have 2 years left on a 9 year battery. I can honestly say I would not live if it without it. Please feel free to ask any questions!

First thank you Pooh_ac commenting on this post. Secondly sorry to here that you have had to endure all of that. However I'm glad that you get relief from you scs. That is what I am hoping I can achieve.
when you reach EOL on the unit do they give you the most recent model out or do they just pull the battery and replace it ? The one my pain doc referred me to is the newest one that can be used in an mri here is the link **Moderator Edit** seeing I'm new here it wont let me put it as a link if you copy and paste should work it did for me

When my battery is at its end of life I will get a new unit with another new battery. They are basically in 1unit. At that time I plan to get the" newest and best" battery. I don't have any plans to get new leads. It takes a longer recovery. With my current setup I cannot have a MRI.. The units are coming out "new and improved".

Wow! You're getting one that allows you to get an MRI, how wonderful! Boy, technology really does move right along.
You brought up a good question regarding replacing the battery and whether or not it will be compatible with the older generation electrodes.

Rae
BTW, I bet you have enuf posts to be able to post that link. If not, you soon will be.

Thank you for your comment and info. Tk I was wondering do you have leads or paddles ?