Has anyone tried the HF10 Spinal Cord Stimulation Device?

Posted by patrick17 @patrick17, Nov 21, 2018

Has anyone tried a device called HF10 ? It’s a device which stimulates your spinal cord to help relieve back and leg pain. After a trial period of about a week, if the patient is achieving good results the device is implanted in the person. My pain management doctor has recommended it to me for arm and hand nerve pain. I would like to hear from anyone who has used this device and especially from anyone who has used it for arm and hand pain. Thank you.

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@lasirvent

Thank you for your comment. I’m doing the trial right now and am wondering how long these last. What questions are good to ask other than infection rate?

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My wife's trial was 7 days. Since you are in the trial I assume the Dr. and type of device are already done. If you have success in trial the implant is done in about a month. After you heal and they start the adjustments I found it really important to chart your pain levels with and without activities and write down everything. Never be afraid to ask reps questions. You paid for it and for most people it is a last resort. You can see my comment below also for a little more detail.

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I had my Medtronic device implanted last year in May. It was to treat chronic nerve pain . I have not taken a pain pill since, and it works great for me. I would do this over and over again!

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@jlssurplus

We are still working with the Nevro people. It was slow going at first. We did not really make a lot of progress until I got some understanding of how the adjustments work. I do not know about Medtronics.

The Nevro the program numbers are the adjustment for the vertebrae level, Then there is an adjustment up and down for the amplitude which is the power level like a stereo volume, then the 3rd adjustment is the pulse rate. On ours it is on 14%, 25% or 100% of the time.

I then made a spreadsheet containing all the adjustments made and the correlating pain levels and such to be able to see what worked the best.

We can call or email our tech anytime to get help. As far as changing level daily my understanding is that it takes 24-36 hours to wash the old settings out and the same for the new settings to take effect. So changing often probably doesn't do much. We tried each new setting for 3-4 days to test it.

I don't know about battery life. My wife is on 100% pulse and is charging every other day.

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Thank you this helps

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@gcranor

I have a Medtronics Stilumator and find it difficult in getting the adjustment right; did you work with the tech allot after the surgery? How to find away to understand how you can do the setting at home; other than up or down and right before bed when you get up and after a good exercise? My battery needs charging every day and a few times twice a day. I am hoping I can get this thing worked out. Oh the VA is now not covering the surgery so I now have the implant and will need to pay out of pocket for everything or drive 3 hours a ferry ride to get help!

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Doesn’t really work! Been in twice for adjustment! About to give up!

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@wilcy

Doesn’t really work! Been in twice for adjustment! About to give up!

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Oh, please, it's an extremely complex device that can take way more adjusting than that! When they do work, they are little short of a miracle at giving you your life back. A family friend needed roughly 10 adjustments before his was helping - his words of wisdom "Try to get the same rep every time, and make sure they write down every adjustment *& give the info to you." @lindes, do you perhaps have any suggestions for @wilcy?
Sue

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I am scheduled for a trial of the Medtronic stimulator and hope it works well for me. I have low back pain. When using the stimulator do you still need pain medicines and a lidocaine patch?

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@marcya

I am scheduled for a trial of the Medtronic stimulator and hope it works well for me. I have low back pain. When using the stimulator do you still need pain medicines and a lidocaine patch?

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I had the Medtronic installed! The trial run was great! I could walk a good distance! The permanent failed to work! After reading the above, think I will try again! Tks! Wilcy

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@jlssurplus

My wife's trial was 7 days. Since you are in the trial I assume the Dr. and type of device are already done. If you have success in trial the implant is done in about a month. After you heal and they start the adjustments I found it really important to chart your pain levels with and without activities and write down everything. Never be afraid to ask reps questions. You paid for it and for most people it is a last resort. You can see my comment below also for a little more detail.

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I finished the trial and begged for them to leave it in ( knowing full well they couldn’t) . It was successful and for 6 of the 7 days I had 75-80% decrease in pain. What a breath of fresh air.

Now the problem is that I have to go to a different doctor to get the permanent one which is going to take probably two months so knowing that I don’t have to be in pain makes this a real hard part of the journey.

Yes-DRG stimulator for abdominal nerve pain after undiagnosed mals for 16 years.

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@wilcy

Doesn’t really work! Been in twice for adjustment! About to give up!

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I met with two different techs twice each. My adjustment is now perfect. I also learned how to set the right stimulation on my own.

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