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Back Pain Community

Spinal Cord Stimulator Problems

For all of you out there that have had damage caused from the SCS......... I am...

Posted by dawngri

17 Replies | Reply | Watch This DiscussionReport This| Share this:Spinal Cord Stimulator Problems For all of you out there that have had damage caused from the SCS......... I am...

Reply: Spinal Cord Stimulator Problems

Dear Stinkenpn, my last reply was to you. At the end I accidentally placed Kenny's name. ...

Posted by dawngri

17 Replies | Reply | Watch This DiscussionReport This| Share this:Spinal Cord Stimulator Problems Dear Stinkenpn, my last reply was to you. At the end I accidentally placed Kenny's name. ...

Reply: Spinal Cord Stimulator Problems

Hi Stinkenpn.........yes the SCS is a last option. When there is no other surgical...

Posted by dawngri

Hi Stinkenpn.........yes the SCS is a last option. When there is no other surgical procedure to help with the pain, and you are on meds yet still suffering, the SCS is the only other chance for improved pain control. It have worked well for many people, and has been disastrous also, as you and I and many other sufferes have found out the hard way. But no one can tell in advance what will happen. ...... There needs to be more research done, but if no one reports the problems, nothing will be done and we are shoved aside, and the docs just want to get us out of there office and not deal with it.

The way to check for lead placement is with a fluoroscopy picture. The doc should be able to do it in his office. It's just like an X-ray. Also an X-ray is an option, but not as good a picture, less detail is seen.

There was a recall last summer on the St.Judes battery. It was burning people. The company made a recall and your doctor and the company would have notified you. Only one certain model was affected. Mine was a St. Judes battery, not a recalled one. If you were notified by your company, that you have a defective battery, wire, lead, anything, then it should have been addressed by the tech and your doctor immediately. Is that what was stated in the letter you received???? The stim can be working just fine, but what is being stimulated with electricity??????????? Something that shouldn't be !!!!!!?????? Listen to your body........... My battery was in my butt and I just could never sit without severe pain......the tech said that if I had a fatter butt it wouldn't hurt so much.... Oh give me a brake here will you?????? So if my butt was too skinny then they should have put it in the abdomen......getting screwed again..

I requested that when it was removed that the tech take the wires and battery and check it for defects. I was very specific about this. But only the wires were given to the tech. The hospital would not release the battery. I suppose I could make a legal case here with that. I was told that the hospital NEVER will release anything they take out of the body. The only report I got stated that during removal there was blood around the ends of the leads. And there wasn't a problem found with the wires themselves. No one can say what happened to the battery. Due to the stress on my body I developed Beau's Lines on my finger nails. It is a condition where your nails stop growing due to severe trauma, stress, chemotherapy, etc. on the body. It takes weeks or months to notice. They are horizontal lines. Once the trauma has stopped and your nails start growing again, that is when you notice the lines, very hard horizontal lines that show up at the cuticle and remain until the nail fully grows out. The doctor was shocked when I showed him. He practically shoved me out of his office. He kept saying he did nothing wrong. What a nightmare it has been................. If you think something is wrong Kenny, don't wait............Dawn GView Thread

Posted bydawngri

17 Replies | Reply | Watch This DiscussionReport This| Share this:Spinal Cord Stimulator Problems Hi Stinkenpn.........yes the SCS is a last option. When there is no other surgical...

Reply: Spinal Cord Stimulator Problems

My doctor refused to believe my leads had moved also. When I had the upper back and chest...

Posted by dawngri

17 Replies | Reply | Watch This DiscussionReport This| Share this:Spinal Cord Stimulator Problems My doctor refused to believe my leads had moved also. When I had the upper back and chest...

Reply: Spinal Cord Stimulator Problems

Hi Kenny.........I also had the shooting pains around to the stomach, .....plus electrical...

Posted by dawngri

17 Replies | Reply | Watch This DiscussionReport This| Share this:Spinal Cord Stimulator Problems Hi Kenny.........I also had the shooting pains around to the stomach, .....plus electrical...

Reply: Spinal Cord Stimulator Problems

I have read of many horror stories. Some have been paralyzed, some went on breathing...

Posted by dawngri

17 Replies | Reply | Watch This DiscussionReport This| Share this:Spinal Cord Stimulator Problems I have read of many horror stories. Some have been paralyzed, some went on breathing...

Reply: Spinal Cord Stimulator Problems

Also NeuroTalk is a great place.

Posted by dawngri

17 Replies | Reply | Watch This DiscussionReport This| Share this:Spinal Cord Stimulator Problems Also NeuroTalk is a great place.

Reply: Spinal Cord Stimulator Problems

Health Central has a huge community dealing with the SCS problems.

Posted by dawngri

17 Replies | Reply | Watch This DiscussionReport This| Share this:Spinal Cord Stimulator Problems Health Central has a huge community dealing with the SCS problems.

Reply: Spinal Cord Stimulator Problems

Hi Kenny.........You are definitely not alone.......I visit many back pain web sites, and...

Posted by dawngri

Hi Kenny.........You are definitely not alone.......I visit many back pain web sites, and have found hundreds of people with severe problems directly caused by the SCS........

The trial was fabulous. I only experience sever nausea, but kept the stim on low and took reglan. I had 100% pain relief. Oh joy, after years of agony, I found the answer.

The night I came home from the permanent implant I vomited for 12 hrs. Despite telling the anesthesiologist, they gave me nothing for nausea............... Soon the real agony began.........When I had the stim on, even at a very low background frequency, I had stabbing chest pain, it felt like I had a sharp knife stabbing the sides of my chest........my neuropathy pain began to get worse and I started having muscle spasms.....

The spasms were around my chest and lower back, they were extremely intense to the point where I felt I had shaking chills........the tech made adjustments and the doc said my body needed to get used to it............ The spasms worsened, the leg and back pain that I had worsened and the chest pain worsened. This was to the point where I stopped using the SCS altogether. The tech and I went back to the doc again, because I wasn't using the scs at all............the tech suggested a look see, and with the office fluoroscopy, we saw one wire had migrated...............this wire was the reason for the damage to the muscles and the chest pain. .........the doc sent me home and I was to use only the good wire......

Yet, the symptoms continued.......Then my legs began to get weak. With in a few days I had serious trouble walking............ That's when the doc removed it..........this was 45 days after the implant...............

It has been almost 8 months now. My leg strength came back immediately and it took a few months of steroids, muscle relaxers and narcotics to get me through it all........the chest pain is almost gone, but the muscle spasms continue and are extremely painful........it feels like a constant vibration all around my rib cage, sometimes the muscles in my arms, buttocks , legs and abdomen actually jerk..............I take Xanax, which is the only muscle relaxer that works for me.......plus a hot bath or heat packs help. ................if I don't take the Xanax before the muscles start to spasm at a certain degree, I am in a lot of trouble.......and I still need a narc for that pain and the pain I had before the surgery.......... ........... My Neuro surgeon did not do the implant, an anesthesiologist/pain doctor did the surgery..............he says he has never seen anyone have any problems at all. He says I am in the one percent of those that have unexplained poor outcomes..........my NS and my physiatrist say I will improve but it will take a very long time. ............................... .............I have talked with people on other sites that have much worse problems than I do. Some have been dealing with the damage caused for years now. But I do have to say that for many the SCS has been a wonder life saver for them.......but for the rest of us, there are no answers.

Good luck to you Kenny. Let me know what your symptoms are. I had a lumbar SCS. Some that had a cervical SCS have breathing and swallowing problems. ...........Dawn GView Thread

Posted bydawngri

17 Replies | Reply | Watch This DiscussionReport This| Share this:Spinal Cord Stimulator Problems Hi Kenny.........You are definitely not alone.......I visit many back pain web sites, and...

Reply: SCS and know

Hello Klauspabst..........I also has terrible nausea with my SCS. I had to turn it on...

Posted by dawngri

2 Replies | Reply | Watch This DiscussionReport This| Share this:SCS and know Hello Klauspabst..........I also has terrible nausea with my SCS. I had to turn it on...

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