Is there a group here for spinal cord stimulator recipients?

Interesting, the same thing happened to me & my brother. The trial went pretty good and when it was permanently implanted it didn’t work as good as the trial. My pain level is about 40% better, I’m extremely disappointed with my doctors and with the Medtronic Rep. Now I have bladder and prostate issues from overstimulation in my opinion.

I am a 69-year-old young man who has chronic back and leg pain. My L5 & S1 discs are shot, bone on bone. I didn’t want major back surgery so my pain management doctor suggested a spinal cord stimulator. I did the trial and everything went OK and decided to have it permanently implanted. After a few months and different reprogramming I noticed issues with my bladder and prostate. Talked with all my docs and asked them if they ever heard of the possibility of overstimulation? Everyone said never heard of overstimulation from SCS. Well, my symptoms progressed to the point where I had so much pain in my prostate I couldn’t sit. I went to my urologist after several visits and he informed me that I had some nerve damage in my bladder & chronic prostatitis. I decided to shut off the SCS and within 24 hours 80% of the pain went away. Has anyone had any side effects from a spinal cord stimulator?

I appreciate your forthcoming, on what many patients with SCS are coming to realize the device isn’t what it promised to be, and leads to other problems.
I am wondering about the paddles implanted along the thoracic spinal column and if the others experience pain when standing for a prolong period of time. It aches, where I need to rest, to alleviate the pain in between the shoulder blades.
Also, I continue to work the core, lower spine, shoulders and knees ( shoulder and knee replacement in the last 7 years) i attended PT at Mayo, yet with five sessions, and daily exercises, the pain on left side has intensified, down the lower left leg. I am wondering if the levoscoliosis is becoming worse, creating more pain down the left side, where the curvature ends?

can you give me the citation for the videos please? I am considering the SCS for my lumbar region. My name is Barbara Filer and I have had several injections over the years.
Thank you,

Has anyone had success with a spinal cord stimulator like Medtronic or by Abbott?
Thank you!

I have a Medtronic SCS. For the first year it was amazing. I was able to walk for miles and my pain was eased, but suddenly my pain returned and I could only walk a very short distance. The pain specialist is going to work with Medtronic to try and resolve the problem.

I had a Metronic system implanted in 2017 for cervical stimulation and an Abbott system implanted in 2023 for lumbar stimulation. Both are working well and meet the clinical target of providing at least 50% pain reduction. However, in order to manage your expectations, it's important to understand that spinal cord stimulation is just one tool in your pain relief toolbox. They are not a magical cure. It may require some time to get the programming right. You may still need pain meds, you still need to exercise, and you may need to consider lifestyle modifications.

Once implanted and programmed, the system should provide a fairly consistent level of pain relief unless there is some type of adverse event like lead migration, lead breakage, or battery failure. In the absence of that, any increase in pain level is most likely due to a change in body mechanics or structure based on my experience.

February 2023, I had the Abbott Burst implanted, worked with the reps to control the lower spinal pain, only to have sciatica due to the size of the battery on my 5'7" 120 frame. July 2023, the Burst was removed for the Eterna, and after many reprograming, the device was easing pain away, until this year, with more visits from the rep to control the pain level down the leg while sitting. While in Europe in October 2024, neglected to turn device back on after two airport screenings, realizing three weeks later, the device was off.
I met with the neurosurgeon in late December, and his reply is what you are reading from others, it is a 50% consensus relief, and I gave it more of a "college try". I am awaiting to have it removed next month. All I can do is stay fit, exercise, lift weights, and stay positive. I also have scoliosis progressing, of which that is another matter, and didn't help with the SCS.

I will add my experience to the mix. I had the Medtronic SCS implanted in 2018 after a successful trial. My pain level dropped down to about a 2. Along with several meds, I was living a pretty normal life. However, all my pain began to return in February of 2021. That was a after a short session of gentle skiing. Did that cause the problem? No one knows. I wish that I had thought to check to see if I still got that "shocking" feeling(paresthesia) when I laid down on a hard surface like when I used to get. That would have been an indicator as to whether or not the stimulator was still working. I had the SCS hardware removed in May of 2023 and tried to have a trial of newer SCS. However, excess scar tissue prevented them from getting the trial leads in the "sweet spot", so no successful trial. Since then I have seen many on this site reporting bad experiences with these devices. Hard to know what to believe these days.

I've had my spinal cord stimulator 8 weeks and feel the surgery a failure. I would love 50% pain relief in lower back, but not happening. Neurosurgeon wants to go back in to make a repair and I am skeptical of it helping.
Plus going through it again. It was extremely painful.
I am also thinking of having it removed totally. Would not do this again,