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Has anyone had the Stimwave spine stimulator installed?
Hello to ALL! I have a severe back injury and even after three surgeries and several fusions, I am still experiencing severe and chronic pain. My pain management specialist is talking about a spine stimulator. After some research I located the Stim Wave. With this unit, only the leads are implanted. No wires come through. The antenna is worn like a pager on your belt.
Has anyone tried one of the Stim Wave stimulators yet? Any feed back on them?
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Sorry, make that spinalcord.com, not spincord.
Not familiar with Stimwave, but I do have a St. Jude (now Abbott Labs) spine neurostimulator which was installed in 2017...not MRI friendly. I am in the process of having it replaced with a Medtronics unit which is MRI friendly.
I have been told the Medtronics unit is the best, but still considering all players. Any replacement for me must be MRI friendly!
Thank you for trying to help me. Spincord.com is a company selling "Optimize Your Medical Practice...." no articles but I did find Spinalcord.com. I found a forum like this one and yes, all the possible side effects are listed. I did the required trial without any issues and I had a lot of pain relief. So for me and my pain it works. I have three friends in my church class that have various SCS implanted, one for 14 years another for 10 years. No one has had any issues. I'll be getting one with even better technology and I can't wait.
I had the Stimwave surgery April 7, 2023. The trial seemed to help the pain alot so we did the permanent one. So far it hasn't helped. I did notice the first time they adjusted it that it had helped the neuropathy in my legs. I didn't expect that so was very pleased with that. But it got to the point where it was making the pain in my back worse. They tried another program that eliminated the help I was getting in my legs and made back pain worse. They changed the programs and at this point My legs are very bad. My back pain is back to normal but I still have to take the normal amount of hydrocodone. The rep handling it says I am supposed to keep taking all the medicine I normally take and the scs is just supposed to help with another layer of help with the pain. This is not what I was told by the doctor. My understanding was that it was supposed to reduce the pain so I could cut out some of the medicine. I am also on gababentin and methocarbamol. So at this point I am wondering what the point is in scs. I am going to call again today to get them to do some changes and see what happens. At this point I would not choose this solution for the pain. @pat79
I'm sorry you're having difficulty with your SCS. I have read it can take multiple adjustments before the best one for you is found. My rep says I'll be able to stop the Tramadol 50mg pain meds I take about 3/4 days a week. I really don't like opioid's but I have to quit gritting my teeth and be able to move at some point so.. And I'm suppose to be able to quit Gabapentin and stop the brain fog.
All SCS devices are not the same. There are different types of stimulation; high frequency, low frequency, burst, wave and probably more I didn't research. I had a very successful trial with the Boston WaveWriter and just waiting for approval to have the permanent one.
I hope your rep can get the perfect program for you.
alexis7, I must have misread one of your previous posts. I thought you were looking into getting an Abbott stimulator.
The Abbot Eterna would require two batteries, one for each area I need treated, the Boston battery can do two areas. I may need to charge it daily, depending on output used but one battery in my body is more attractive to me.
How did the the stimwave trial work for your neuropathy?
what part of your body was involved?
Did you have the permanent Stimwave implanted? What part of you body was it placed?