Hey Booklover - nice to meet you,

I'm sorry you also deal with CRPS II. I wanted to mention that I don't actually push the battery or pump in - I just apply the tape with some tension so that it reduces the internal friction from the device more like adding support for it. Pushing it in may cause additional discomfort as you would be pushing it against the internal scarring and creating more pressure/pain. With them gently supported, I don't notice them as much and the pain is much less.

Tape of any kind usually causes me to blister etc., but this particular tape doesn't.. I hope that it works for you also.

Wishing you the best day possible,
Tessa

I wore my jeans to my surgery and they marked me with my jeans on. Although I do intend to lose weight at some point, they assured me that they made the "pocket" deep enough that it shouldn't be an issue. Was that the same with any of you all?

Has the revision surgery you had in June; laminectomy and paddle leads, improved your pain? If I recall correctly; since you had so much scar tissue you had been limited to one lead which had migrated. Has the revision surgery you had in June; laminectomy and paddle leads been successful? Is the SCS now helping to lessen your pain?


Gerry

Hi! Thanks for checking in on me!

My revision surgery recovery has continued to go well, and as of my latest programming session this past week, I am getting AMAZING coverage - from the middle of my back all the way to my toes. I can't tell you how happy this has made me!

Now, to be sure, I'm not pain free - because we all know that's not going to happen - but my pain is greatly reduced. That is definitely one for the "win" column!

However, I am having a problem that has the Medtronic's tech people and engineers stumped. This happened with my percutaneous leads, as well as with my new paddle leads, so they don't think it is a "lead" issue. The problem occurs when I go to bed at night. Now - picture this - I sleep propped up on seven pillows - three behind my head, two under my knees, and one on each side of me. This keeps me in a position similar to my recliner, and is the only way I can stay in bed all night. And, with all of those pillows, I don't move an inch during the night. What is happening is that when I go to bed and lie down, I can feel my stim just fine. In fact, I have it turned up a little bit higher because I know what's coming next. As I lie there, it's like someone is slowly turning my setting down, down, down. After about an hour, I'm feeling probably 50% less stimulation. After three hours, it's like my stim is turned off - I can't feel it at all. When I get up in the morning, similarly, it's like someone slowly turns the settings back up - after a couple of hours I feel the normal sensation.

Medtronic's techs and engineers said they have never heard of this happening before. The engineers asked my rep to get a separate card for her reader so that she can download two-weeks worth of everything my battery does on it, and then to send it to them. At the same time, I kept a two-week log of all the different times, settings, etc. When I saw her this past week, she had tech on the phone and was going through all the various steps to save all the reports to the card so she could overnight it to them. Unfortunately her machine messed up towards the end of that process and erased all of my data. So now I am once again keeping my log, and in a couple of weeks she'll try to download the data again and send it to them.

But, in the meantime, I am LOVING my new setting, and just feel very blessed to be getting the coverage that I'm getting!

Wishing you much joy and a blessed week ahead!

=Becky

I am glad it worked out well. I had been concerned when you had the ordinal lead put in since there was a a lot of scar tissue limiting you to only one lead. I was surprised the rep told the doctor to go ahead and put it in any way. Did't know how long before the paddles could be installed and if it was worth going thru another surgery. So as mentioned; I really glad this worked out.

Strange about the night gradually lessening; seems like the battery in the lay position with a little movement does not complete connect.Hope its just a minor adjustment.


Gerry

Hi Becky,
Any chance the reduction in stimulation in sleep could be occurring due to change of position as body relaxes? I also can only sleep in reclined position. I have noticed with the old medtronic as body relaxes neck tends to go into extension or to the side (even when you use pillows/brace to restrict it). Spoke to Nevro Rep he said this variation in stimulation is a real problem for people with leads in neck even with the newer models of low freq batteries such as medtronic.

Less likely to be the cause further down because ribcage already restricts movement.

Just a thought...

Booklover

I have a spinal cord stimulator through Boston scientific I have had it over three years for chronic pain and cancer I'm 32 I had prolong pain from chemo when I had cancer when I was 28 breast cancer , I'm having trouble being able to charge mine to get. A full charge if takes me two days to charge it and I can't charge it when I'm up and moving I have to be in bed in order to get a good charge without moving for four hours to get it charged , then I have to charge the pack and go back at charging it the second day I'm hoping I can get some answers tomorrow of what to do I'm so tired of this I'm to the point of having it removed I hope to hear from some of you at what problems you have had ,
Thanks sincerely terin

Welcome Terin2002.