[Keith63]

I had a Medtronic SCS implanted a little over three weeks ago and now my legs ache so bad... it's disturbing. Once the pain from the incisions subsided and through the first week everything seemed fine; then the aching started after having the device on for several hours. I tried turning it on for just two hours yesterday, one in the morning and one in the afternoon and it didn't matter, the aching would start almost immediately. It's gotten progressively worse over the last few weeks, and is so disturbing I'm hardly able to sleep. Today I have full on body aches to go with the aching legs, and my sciatica is worse in both legs.

I'm at a complete loss. Did anyone else go through this after SCS implant?

[Keith63]

So I found out what the issue was with the aching legs. When I had my SCS implanted it was for the purpose of dealing with chronic sciatica and back pain (I'd already had two L5-S1 laminectomy/discectomy and finally had an L5-S1 fusion), and so I could finally (hopefully) get off pain meds. I'd been on methadone for 4 or 5 years, can't recall when that started, and was taking up to 60 mg daily.

Post surgery for the SCS my Pain Management (PM) Doc dropped me off the methadone... immediately. What I had been experiencing was withdrawal; and by Friday of last week I was in total agony. I called my PM clininc and told them I either needed to get in for another round of back injections and needed something for pain because I thought something was wrong with the SCS. I got nothing! I went through PURE HELL through last weekend as my insomnia kicked into overdrive starting about 2 a.m. Saturday and the leg aches were so extreme, ultimately turning int entire body aches and shivers among other things. I ended up in the ER Monday morning after taking more sleeping pills than I thought I'd taken and wasn't in my right mind. A shot of Valium finally knocked me out, for 45 minutes, and when I woke I was right where I was when I came in (BP an HR through the roof). They couldn't find anything but did give me some NARCO and Valium after calling my surgeon and getting me an appointment the next day.

The surgeon is the one who figured out the withdrawals, I hadn't even thought about that being a possibility. So, lesson learned... the hard way. If you're taking pain meds and have for a considerable time you need to come up with a plan for getting clean, with a physician or other qualified Dr. I can't begin to express how mind-bendingly painful cold turkey is, I wish that on no one. It'll be a while before I'm "healthy", but I'm working with my PCP to formulate a strategy. As of now I'm taking Suboxone, but from what I've read the withdrawals from that are worse than methadone, so I don't plan to be on that for long, just long enough to get a solid plan together.

K