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Anyone had Spinal stimulator removed? Replaced?
Spine Health | Last Active: Jun 12 9:00am | Replies (44)Comment receiving replies
I am wondering how you are doing now. I have a fusion scheduled for January at Mayo T10 - S1. I had a fusion in the 70’s L3-S1. I started having problems with the level above that last spring. It got so bad that I couldn’t walk, stand or lie on my back. The vertebrae above my fusion fractured in 2 places, slipped forward taking the disc with it and leaving very little room for the nerve. The local surgeon said he could stabilize my back but not to expect too much pain wise. So I went to Mayo in August and saw a surgeon who uses new hardware which is supposed to be less invasive to place. He wants to cut apart my old fusion to put the curve back in the lumbar spine (back in the 70’s it was standard to straighten the spine before fusing it) and then add the levels up to T10 because on MRI they were all failing. They plan to do a staged procedure over 2 days. I am 69 now and am worried about how my body will handle this major a procedure, Everything the surgeon said made sense to me and he really spent a lot of time. I wasn’t expecting to need this much done so I’m a little nervous about it.
Replies to "I am wondering how you are doing now. I have a fusion scheduled for January at..."
Last January I had surgery to reconstruct my spine. I had had two fusions done locally which gave me a few years relief. The L1-2 disc was the only lumbar not fused and spring of 2021 I started having a lot of pain. It took six months of complaining to my pain doctor before she sent me for am MRI. Turned out that the L1-2 disc had ruptured and since the ones below were fused it had collapsed and my spine became "S" shaped. I was diagnosed with adult onset scoliosis.
I woke up one morning and could not move because of the extreme pain. Thankfully I had a medical button and was able to get help. The ER doc was awesome! He talked to me to get an idea of what the problem was then, he went and looked over my tests and notes. When he came back, he kind of was trying to come up with a description of my back. I asked if he was trying to tell me my back was a mess. He laughed and said yes that was it. He had spoken to the neurosurgeons office and was told that they would not touch me. They made an appointment for me to meet with the PA in their office. He told me I needed to go out of state to see a doctor who could help me. Since he taught over there, he knew of the doctors and gave me the name of a surgeon.
I went fully intending to turn any surgery down, I had had enough. But meeting with him and listening to how much success he had had with his spine reconstruction I decided to trust him and agreed to the surgery.
The surgery was nine hours long and the pain was worse than my other fusions. I am fused from T9 to S1. I am a year and a half post surgery and still pain free after having dealt with it for 33 years! The surgical pain is a faint memory now and I am still glad I had that surgery.
I would recommend that anyone considering surgery get information about the surgeon and be sure he/she has a good record doing the surgery.
The medical center where I was referred is part of a university so it is on top of anything new.
I do still have my spinal cord stimulator due to nerve damage years ago. I couldn't live without it. I know because when a doctor was replacing my stimulator he accidentally pulled the leads out. Went 10 days before he had everything he needed and put in new ones. That time I was on Lortab 10's and still had bad pain. As soon as he got me put back together the pain was controlled.
Sorry to run on and on but I just wanted you to know about my experience and try to encourage you.
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Greetings from Connect, @sue406. Did you think we forgot you? Well now I have found you and am both excited about your upcoming surgery in January and also a bit apprehensive. My first lumbar fusion was in the 70’s so I have been down that path.
The new options and technology that is available today is very encouraging. And your team at Mayo will be comprehensive and attentive.
Let’s talk about pain. I would like to get some other folks to find you and chime in. Perhaps someone has recently had the same surgery.
For managing pain, there is a pain center at Mayo. You might want to ask for a pre-surgery interview so that you will know how that part of the Mayo team will be able to assess your potential pain and discuss some options. Let me know what questions you might have now?
May you be free of suffering and the causes of suffering.
Chris