Thinking about stimulator or pain pump for chronic lumbar pain

Lost my reply. Sorry. I use ice packs & elevate my legs. I also take Vitamin D; helps lots with inflammation. Can't take Vit D with K2 because I have Afib & take Warfarin. I just started physical therapy so I'll see. Have been thru 4 docs in past year. They kept quitting the practice. Been in withdrawal 3 x in last 4 months. It is awful. Sorry you are struggling & Best Wishes.

@mattman1022 I may have answered you before, but here it is: Both procedures involve a trial. The trials are minimally invasive and are usually done in the doctor's office. They are designed to give you an idea as to how well you may benefit from the permanent implant. You are looking for at least a fifty percent decrease in pain. Be advised...as I have learned and experienced. A successful trial is no guarantee that the permanent implant will work. My SCS trial was a very good one, and the implant also worked well, but only for about two and a half years. The pain pump trial dropped may pain significantly, but the implant has yet to give me significant relief after two and a half years. I'm not telling you what you should do. Just go into these things with your eyes wide open. I wish you well.

I appreciate your response. I'm still very uncertain about what to do. I get really anxious thinking about the pain never getting better or getting worse. I had this horrible nightmare recently where I'm stuck in a coma after an accident and in a hospital bed and not able to move to relieve the pain in my back. It really freaks me out to even think about the dream. I really worry about the pain continuing to get worse as I get older as it seems to have increased over time. I wish the dr. had warned me about all the problems a fusion can cause. I thought it would be like when I had a hernia repair where it fixed the problem and I've had literally zero problems ever since. Maybe it's my fault for not asking more questions. I was only 21 at the time and I had so little experience to draw upon. Now I'm 40 and the thought of more surgery really scares me but the drs I've seen make it sound like it's my only option. That or opioids and given how difficult it's been for me to reduce or stop them in the past that's an equally terrifying thought. They did help with pain though. Maybe I'll just do the trials and hope that they make a noticeable reduction in the pain. I also worry that it will help at first but then stop over time.

@mattman1022 I've had a Nevro SCS for about 8 years. I'm on my 2nd one, the HFX. My experience and those of others are chronicled on this website. There is a LOT of good information for you.

I began with the pain pump in 2012 with great success. In 2026 I will have my third pain pump implanted. The person mentioning her fear about dosing. You have no access to either increase or decrease the amount of drug.
It is calibrated by doctor who handles refills, so you can't meddle with the dose until they (medical staff) change it.
I think people confuse it with the morphine pump in the hospital after surgery. This is regulated by doctor/staff.

I'm sorry you asked about dose a few weeks, or months ago. I had to find the sheet. I'll have to look for it again.
I hope you are feeling better. I'll contact you when I have my hands on it, okay?

@mattman1022

I'm 78 now, I will have my third pump installed in March. I have nothing but praise for it. When you are on the pump relief is equal to 300th the med you would need. They consider me drug dependent but not addicted. Since 2012, I have only had 3 small increases in the amount of drugs delivered to my body. I struggled with the drug part but by then my family doctor had a lot of fear to write for 6 Percocet's a day. My neurosurgeon said he has people come to him taking triple that amount. I went with the morphine pump after trials and have been very pleased, without it I couldn't get out of bed. I also envy patients that get one series of shots and are great forever, but my case is much more severe, and I had to come to terms with that, it is hard. Like most of us I had tried all kinds of treatments that didn't even touch it. I never regret all the surgeries (seven areas or joint replacements) that I did. I focus on moving forward, what if nothing helped you? At least this is worth a try isn't it? Good Luck I hope you can be as pain free as possible.

Hi @mattman1022

I've lived with chronic pain for over twenty years and about five years ago I felt a lot like you did now - having limited choices and a lot of pain from a failed back surgery and non-stop neuropathic pain. I ended up getting a spinal cord stimulator and it has been successful in removing the worst of my pain. It was not an easy road, the trial period and immediately after the procedure were both harder on me than I had expected. I think I had some unrecognized central pain sensitization at the time and it amplified the entire experience. I also found that once you do something like this you block off some exercises and gentle chiropractic care, which for me were really helpful beforehand. When I had the procedures done it locked up a lot of my muscles and I noticed my gait was different. It took a while until I found a chiropractor who used an integrator adjusting instrument, which is the only FDA approved tool for chiropractors. It allowed me to still get gentle adjustments post-surgery and even turn down the amount of power I pulled from the stimulator as the two were able to work together to allow me to improve my spinal alignment without the crushing pain. It sounds like you have some options and you're doing the right thing asking around for other experiences, even though yours will be unique to you. I just wanted to pitch in that I am continuing to find success with the spinal cord stimulator three years in and share what that process looked like for me. Wishing you the best.

@mai have had the Abbott Prodigy in the Lumbar for about 4 1/2 years ands I am most happy with it. It may not work for you. I write this because you NEED and MUST do your research. Why? Because sometime when you go into a pain management doctor, he/she may begin pushing one Brand and Model. You are the patient and you should make the choice. However, if that doctor tells you that it is not for you, then follow his guidelines. May God give wisdom to you and the doctor.

I’ve had 14 back surgeries, 2 have failed, facets disease, CRPS, and have a full titanium spine. Had the top of the line St. Jude/Abbott labs SCS. Its 16 pin chipset had to be surgically attached with a wire sticking out my back that was connected to an external battery/wave generator. It got 30% relief of my lower lumbar spine only. And both my legs. But I don’t have radicular pain. It worked and later the exterior wire and implantable unit were put inside my left back at the belt line. It has 2 programs: burst & tingle. You don’t feel the first, but do feel the second (tingle) it’s like having a big TENS unit doing your legs/abdomen pelvis and half my lumbar spine. If you go this route be warned, they had them with full internal batteries and others with rechargeable batteries that you recharge every time by wearing a charger belt. Very annoying. Still needed pain meds… by 2018 I had my entire spine broken in 4 places and rebuilt. Ended up back with opiates and the SCS. Finally found a pump doc. It saved my life. Got pain from 9 to 4. Was very happy. Then, like oral meds, you get use to them. And need an increase. My doc was very conservative and it took almost 2 years to titrate the dosage properly for me. Just got second pump. Still blessed ! And I read someone mention how the morphine doctors the blood brain barrier. That’s absolutely true. But if you abruptly stopped it. You would definitely go into withdrawal and then the pain would come back with vengeance. The pics are the SCS trial and implant. Stick with the pump if you hurt that bad. I cannot live without it!