Posted on 10/27/2022 12:26:33 PM PDT by Chad C. Mulligan
OK, I've been living with severe low back pain for about 7 years now. Physical Therapy was a joke, Steroid injections, nope. Epidurals? Nope. Laminectomy? Did some but not enough. RF nerve ablation? Catastrophe.
Now they want me to try an electronic implant. And thereby hangs a tale. One doctor is pushing Medtronic, another doctor (in the same medical group!) says no, Abbot Labs is the same but has much better support.
So I asks you - anybody have experience with either of them? Comments?
Following for information.
So very sorry you are in pain. Back pain is the WORST.
I’ve done it all.
Saw Stanford people, ALL the local surgeons, even got pitched the $40K spinal implants.
Saw a Dr Rassouli in Los Angeles after 5 years of wanting to eat a bullet, and after 2 minutes he saw three badly decayed discs two needed replacement. A month later all my problems were nearly gone and I stopped wanting to eat a bullet for the pain.
Never did hard meds, but tons of epidurals, ablasions etc. None of which solved the issues.
Hope you find healing soon. That spine stuff is no fun.
It's similar to what an internal stimulator does but you place the pads on the outside of your lower back. I use mine often and it does seem to work but not always:
or
This could be the saving answer to those seeking a permanent solution for their painful neuropathy of feet and other body parts.
Millions have already visited “neuropathy centers” and other snake-oil sales centers without tangible results.
I am not familiar with SCS stimulators, but am very familiar with neuromod stimulators used for other applications. Some things to consider are time until replacement, rechargeable/non-rechargeable, and battery life. An aunt received an SCS to deal with leg pain from an amputation, and it was life changing. Good luck.
My father in law has used the one from Abbott. It has not helped much. The Dr. said it was only a 50% chance to begin with.
Have you researched inversion therapy?
Ever since I got a Teeters Hangups inversion “table” more like a cot, I don’t have back pain anymore.
I have a Boston Scientific Precision Novi SCS. It helps me alot. While it does not get rid of all the pain, it helps me cope with it. This is my 2nd one. This new one is better in that I can now have MRI’s, whereas with the older model, that could not happen. Remote allows for changing to different programs. In my case it is very helpful.
I have had good results with the Boston Scientific neuromodulator for about 14 years now. This is the third one I’ve had as the generator unit has to be replaced when the battery dies. I like that I can control all parameters of the signals- pulse strength, frequency, etc.
I wish you the best!
Background: Army injury, 4 failed lower back fusions, multiple RF Ablations, multiple medications.
THC and CBD worked wonders for my mom and my friend’s wife for spinal nerve problems which wasn’t helped with surgery. Worth a try since they tend to pump people with spinal cord issues with very powerful pain killers and muscle relaxers.
I am totally sympathetic. I’m having a L-3 to S-1 fusion in December. I’m not in a great deal of pain, just running into functional issues (my legs aren’t working real well. I hope you find a solution.
CC
And another Boston Scientific user. My wife had one put in maybe 10 or more years ago. Kinda the same result. It greatly reduces pain. Not all of it. But we could dance and dance. I think after about 7 years the effect of the implant wore down/off. The last 3 or so years the pain came pack and she switched to living on pills. Hydrocodone/Vicodin. She was careful and the pills gave her needed relief.
She passed away 1 month and 9 days ago.
I had a laminectomy on L3 and cannot walk very far due to the pain in my legs. Like you, I hope that they find a solution soon.
As of mid 2018, some consider Medtronic technology the worst, with limited programming and unable to overcome fibrosis over time. St Jude, better but still limited programming, has very high defect issues. Boston Scientific has almost limitless programming capabilities as well as doing burst and high frequency stimulation all in one.
• According to a meta-analysis of randomized trials, some patients derive substantial benefit from a spinal cord stimulator (SCS) (Mayo Clin Proc 2019;94:1475).....Results were as follows:
- In three studies, SS was compared with medical therapy; these trials involved patients with diabetic neuropathy or failed back surgery and reported proportions of patients with >/=50% pain relief. By this criterion, pain was relieved in half of SS patients and in 6% of medically treated patients — a significant difference.
- In three studies, researchers compared older and newer SS technology and used the =50% pain relief criterion. Outcomes favored the newer devices, with response rates of about 70% (vs. ˜50% with the older devices). These trials enrolled patients with chronic back and leg pain and complex regional pain syndromes.
- In three studies, older SS devices were compared with medical therapy, but average change in a numerical pain scale was reported as the main outcome. The mean difference was 1.4 on 0–10-point scales — a significant difference favoring SS. These trials enrolled patients with complex regional pain syndrome and peripheral vascular disease.
- Results were mixed in three other small studies of patients with failed back surgery.
- Most trials were funded by makers of SS devices, and risk for bias was considered to be “moderate.”
• Spinal cord stimulation (SCS) effectively reduces chronic pain symptoms in individuals with painful diabetic polyneuropathy (PDPN), according to a study Diabetes Care. 2017;published online Nov. 6). After five years, 55 percent of patients had experienced treatment success and 80 percent of patients with a permanent implant still used their SCS device. The median duration of SCS treatment was 60 months. The study was funded by Medtronic.
• The complications of SCS are numerous and incidences of 30% to 40% have been reported in multiple studies (Pain Medicine. 2016;17;325–336). Hardware-related problems such as lead failure and migration are more common than biological complications such as infection, pain, and wound breakdown. Infection is one of the major complications of SCS with incidences of 3.4% to 10%, and is a common cause for removal of the device and failure of therapy. A review has recommended an 18% budgetary allocation average per patient per annum for the maintenance of the therapy including complication management. It is important to note that in device-based therapies, the experience of the implanter impacts significantly on the rate of complications.
I am sorry to hear of your wife’s passing. I have had an implant for about 8 years. The battery on the first started to have problems, so we went with a new one that works with MRI’s about 3 years ago. I used to be on a lot of the pills. Dark times. With the SCS, I went to very low doses of pain killers. Enough with the stimulator to make it tolerable. Constant back pain is terrible. Again I am sorry for your loss.
Traditional Chinese Medicine WITH acupuncture first. If it does nothing, you can go elsewhere, but it might just fix it entirely. Look around you on Google or Yelp, and take in the reviews to find one who people rave about. The ones who do just acupuncture, without the TCM herbal teas are only about 30% as effective as the ones who do herbal teas, made themselves, with RAW HERBS onsite. Those Teas are hugely powerful, because the ones who make them from raw herbs themselves, instead of selling premade teas or teapills, will have a whole other level of knoweldge of the art. They are like PhDs. Call and ask to make sure they do that.
It is the type of thing where if you find a good practitioner it is life changing.
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