I’ve been working closely w the Boston Scientific rep., and have met with her and her colleagues several times over the past 2 years to reprogram the stimulator, and try different programs, particularly as symptoms change. For a long time I wondered whether or not it was actually helping or doing anything, until I got careless about checking the status of the battery, and realized that it had drained. That correlated with a really bad time I was having w pain, so it told me that the stimulator was actually doing something. Until that happened, I really wasn’t sure.

Chronic pain is such a complex phenomenon, and Medicine has so few answers, that each patient has to find which modalities and medications work for them. I know I would be lost without my
1) Neurontin (gabapentin, the generic, didn’t do anything for me; it was like having no meds on board)
2) low dose THC gummies (the green apple flavour made by Hedy, that has a 1:54 ratio of THC to CBD, where half a gummy is the tolerable dose for me)
3) high THC topicals (Vireo Red)
4) morphine
5) acetaminophen
6) baclofen (a muscle relaxant), and
7) the spinal cord stimulator.

And even with all of the above, I have a very poor quality of life, because the failed back surgeries have done, and continue to do so much damage, I.e. Adjacent Segment Disease.