Thank you for your response and input. I am sorry for your wife’s pain. I read your other message and see that you and your wife have been through the mill. I am still undecided about a spinal cord stimulator. I am trying to connect with someone with arm and hand pain who has been helped by the Nevro device. The website below talks of a study of patients with neck and arm pain who had good results with the Nevro HF10. I don’t know anything more about it other than what I’ve read here. One question I have is how many patients were in the trial. It only states that 47 patients had the devices implanted.

I've had a simulator in my back for over 8 years and it has made my day to day work and a lot more pain free. It has its ups and downs just like any other things. I can't have MRI's, and the initial healing time after surgery, and the battery life.But as far as getting rid of all the pain I had from my lower back to my feet was nil compared to before I had the simulator implanted. I had already had a fusion from S-1 to L-4, and they wanted to go in and do another fusion from L-4 to L-3 but I choose the simulator. For me it was the best thing I could of had done. I didn't want them to go through the stomach to do the next fusion, that's my reason to have the implant.

Hello bkruppa, Let me tell you about my experiences with spinal cord stimulators. I had two surgeries on the toes of my right foot. One in 2016 and the other 2018 resulting in a painful stump neuroma in the toes. After consulting with a couple of pain management doctors who don't do SCS thought the only thing left was to try a spinal cord stimulator (SCS) also known I believe as neuroblation. There are three companies that make them. Boston Scientific (Medtronic), Nevro HF10 and Abbott, formerly St. Jude.
The pain management doctor who did the SCS, used the Boston Scientific model. After he explained the procedure, I decided to do the trial which lasted between 5 and 7 days. The two leads are inserted in the back and the battery (generator) is taped to your body. If you get at least 50% improvement they suggest that you get the permanent one, where the make a three inch slit in your lower back near your rump. I'm not sure if I got 50% but the doctor and the Boston Scientific representative convinced me I did. I decided to have the permanent one installed. Unbeknown to me the doctor who did the trial didn't do the permanent one. I was referred to one that did. I had no problem with the generator or leads. I did probably get 50% relief but with Boston Scientific, you do get parathesia, the tingling in the area of the pain. The rep tried to keep reprograming using a laptop and remote device. The tingling wasn't painful, just annoying to me. After two months I had it removed. Nom problem there either. Perhaps, I was too inpatient and should have gave it more time. That was about 2 years ago. I have since tried the 5 day trial with another doctor who used the Abbot DRG device with no luck. I've had many epidurals, RFA's and nerve blocks. Actually, I just had an epidural and MBB, medial branch block two days ago. So far, no relief, but I've been told it may take 3 to 7 days to kick in. If this doesn't work I may talk to the pain doctor about trying the NEVRO. The spinal cord stimulators are designed to block the pain from going to the brain. I've talked to a few people who had foot and leg pain and they got very significant pain relief from the Abbot DRG. I think sometimes the outcomes depends on the skill of the surgeon.