Has anyone else had a neurostimulator implanted for pain control?

i suffer from my l4-l5 herniated torn disc and also sciatic nerve pain. hope this helps. but you can also do google research the brand i have is medtronic.

This time they replaced it with the upgraded MRI friendly device. This device never worked correctly and soon after would not turn on at all. In the meantime my pain in my back is continuing to get worse and I feel like the device is also causing pain. I will need to have the device removed in a fourth surgery in order to get an MRI but I have put this off due to costs and needing a new surgeon because I have lost confidence in the one that performed the three failed surgeries. I have been having major depression episodes due to my worsening pain and lack of mobility. My wife decided to look into having it removed so I can have the MRI and hopefully treatment. We are hoping someone can help us with the process of a fourth surgery. So that I may be able to get some relief. The St. Jude rep was there to sell the device but after the 3rd one was installed he was replaced by a new rep who never returned my calls.

My pain management doctor recommended another neurosurgeon. He took out the St Jude model which had quit working. He installed a Boston Scientific neurostimulartor in early 2015. It's worked wonderfully ever since. He anchored the leads in place. The previous doctor did not do so, the leads worked their way to one side and fried.

I would recommend getting the Boston Scientific unit that tolerates MRIs. Every doctor I've been to wants an MRI of something, and they have to do a Ct scan instead because my Neurostimulator does not allow MRIs. Torn ligament, no MRI; lIgament still torn. Therapist after knee replacement hyper-extended my knee, tore something else, they wanted an MRI. Still torn.
Now I have a "too large to pass" kidney stone near the neurostimulator, and they're trying to figure out if they can blast it without indangering the neurostimulator.

I also recommend finding a neurosurgeon who has lots of experience installing these. Make sure your surgical team knows all of your allergies, anesthesia experiences, exactly where you want the stimulator implanted, and make sure you take the time necessary to heal. The placement is important because the charger fits in a belt that you wear until your implant is charged. I usually recharge it once a week. These things do have a life span, so make sure you discuss the future of your pain control with your doctor.

I get other pains from time to time, like my right knee. I have an external tens unit that I purchased from amazon.com for $25 that works great. I think the brand is ForeverHealth. I highly recommend these because of multiple leads, and many preprogrammed and customizable settings.

Good luck.

My best advice is stay away from the manufacturers Web site! They never talk about the down side or failures. I went on YouTube and watched many many vlogs and videos of real people who documented every thing from the trial through 5+ years on as well as forum's like this . I found this the most helpful and HONEST information any where. My other bit of advice is do not expect the unit to make you 100% pain free. Most of these companies will tell you if you get 50% relief that's a great result. I have spoken with some people who even thou they were told this they fell into deep depression when it did heal them back to "normal". Aslo remember this is not permanent as it can always be removed. Not ideal but for me it was a better option then having a cage and hardware installed in my body that could never be reversed.The key is research research and more research! !
I wish you well and healing

It just takes a few minutes to meet with them to do this. I certainly recommend stimulators to anyone that has gone thru a long period with severe chronic pain.
Best of luck.

A few other comments: a successful installation is supposed to reduce overall pain by 50 to 75%; successful installations are apparently in the 60% to 70% range. So there are people who are pleased with their stimulators.

I am currently on a physical therapy program working with someone who specializes with nerve pain, and am using a Norspan transdermal patch. This approach has been ongoing for 6 months now and I am seeing some improvement. I began this program at the request of my doctor, but I didn't think it would work after 10 years of chronic nerve pain in my replaced left hip region, my lumbar spine and both legs from the waist down with the left one being dominant. I'd even go so far as to say that I thought I was going to end up in a wheel chair but I finally have some hope. The workouts are painful at times, but if I overdo it, my therapist backs my routine down and we begin again. I don't know how much total relief I'll get, but I'm seeing the best results with pain relief that I've had in many years so there's definitely hope.

Another benefit my consultant told me is that Boston Scientifc units can allow for movements of the leads and have a wide range of programming to remap your unit.

I am currently using the burst feature and love it it provides little sensation or buzzing and has allowed me to enjoy normal life activities today that would normally leave me in intense pain and with spasms.

If I could offer any advice have a thorough conversation with your pain specialists to find out if this device is right for you and take onboard all their input and instructions.

I hope my experience helps!!! :)

Currently I am waiting and doing as much research as I can, unfortunately for me the stimulator isn't covered by my insurance so will have to find out if they can find a study to get me into and find a sponsor to cover the implant, before I go that route I would like to know if the stimulator implant works or if I am wasting my time. Thanks

The surgeon spoke to the manufacturer re. whether my old Medtronic lead wires would work with the new stimulator and got a yes even though it was discovered that one of the two wires had dropped down slightly. I was told flat out that that wouldn't be an issue, that even one wire would get the job done, so there was no attempt to re-position the wiring and anchor that had slipped. This may have been due to fear of causing infection, but I can't be certain of that.) Anyway, the St. Jude unit was installed and during the trial, I had relief of greater than 50% in my worst pain areas and was all grins. Unfortunately, shortly after release from the hospital, I had a hard fall which moved the higher mounted lead wire and required new programming. Though both wires are lower than planned at this point, they're still high enough in the thoracic area to reach my pain areas. The new programming was not as effective as the original St. Jude programming (same person did it). A couple of weeks later, I had another fall, but it was mild compared to the first fall. However, I still needed reprogramming and once again, it didn't match the original programming's pain relief. I cannot help the occasional falls which result from hereditary peripheral neuropathy that affects my sense of balance. But I am trying to be much more careful than I was previously. In about 4 weeks I'll be seeing my surgeon and the programmer again at which time I plan to tell them that most of my pain relief is gone even though I know that the stimulator is functioning because I can feel the tingling when it's in the tonic mode. And the boost mode, which has a higher electrical pulse rate, no tingling, and is supposed to be superior to the tonic only models, is also working. To be fair, there is maybe 25% relief in two main areas, but I have many major pain areas that aren't receiving any pain relief. At the last programming session, I asked my programmer what her success rate is with her patients. The reply was that with non complex pain, she had 100% success, but I was her first patient with complex pain. I and the programmer realize that the wiring issue alone isn't the sole problem. There's also an issue with her zeroing in on the pain areas during the programming. Since the lead wires are no longer perfectly aligned as desired, she has to use verbal feedback from me to know when she's got the electricity traveling to a problem area so it's hit or miss much of the time. When I next meet with the surgeon, I plan on asking for new back lead wires, but I'm almost certain that he'll say no because of the possibility of infection since the leads are partially made from plastic. And apparently if you work with plastic in a revision, the chances of infection are higher. Having said that, I also know that St. Jude states in their consumer brochure that if a patient wants their system removed, they can take it all out, including the lead wiring. Another topic for discussion when we next meet. I don't really want to get into a possible lawsuit because of possible incompatible wiring or some other re-installation issue. I just want a solution to the equipment problem. If I'm told that my occasional falls can't be worked around, then it's over. In the meantime, until the next meeting, I'm continuing with light exercise until I next see the experts. Having said all of the above, I would somehow like the St. Jude system to become fully functional again because the few days of relief I experienced were wonderful. If anything significant occurs in the future, I'll post about it. If you got this far, thanks for reading what I wrote.