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How did you get relief with a spinal stimulator? Adjustments?
Chronic Pain | Last Active: Nov 8, 2023 | Replies (105)Comment receiving replies
I have a Nevro HF10 SCS implanted 7 months ago. I have the same situation as glenjunderwood. I too had pain I have contacted my rep at Nevro for assistance and was getting the run around or it taking days for a call back. I went to pain management, and they looked at me like I was crazy. I have been shocked in my leg while in bed and two days later shocked in the battery implant. I was in severe pain and didn't know where to turn. Finally went back to my pain management doctor, because no help from Nevro. The doctor had me get x-rays of my entire spine and contacted Nevro rep to come and see me at his office. Found out 7 months later after multiple phone calls to Nevo and pain management visits, that my x-rays were mislabeled when the device was placed, and the stimulator leads shifted. So now they have created programs that they hope work, they have not worked so far. The programs that we tried for the 7 months, were set up based on the x-ray of placement of my leads. None of them worked because of mislabeling of the vertebrae on the x-ray. The pain following the two shocks has been unbearable, but no one is helping me to relieve the pain. I do not take pain medication other than Tylenol. My trial SCS worked fantastically and was back to work two days after the procedure. I am a nurse and I have not been able to work since February 14, 2023, due to pain, unsteady gait, and exhaustion. If anyone else has had a similar issue with this stimulator, please let me know.
Replies to "I have a Nevro HF10 SCS implanted 7 months ago. I have the same situation as..."
It's interesting that you got "shocked" in various positions. One of the claims of NEVRO is that patients don't experience those shocks (paranthesis, I believe they are called) with NEVRO. I used to get shocked by the Medtronics unit if I was lying on my back on a hard surface. I figured that was a good sign that it was working, and would just turn it off while on my back. The relief from the Medtronics unit was pretty good. In fact it turned out to be true that the pain relief would last for a couple of hours even after turning it off. The pain doc told me not to have the unit turned on while driving, just to be safe.
Had the same problem with electrical type shocking that lasted for about five minutes. I’ve had X-rays to see if the leads had shifted but they hadn’t. Nevro is useless when it comes to patient after care, no follow through at all. I’m currently on Oxy 15mg 2x/day which takes the excruciating pain to a bearable pain but still can’t walk through the entire grocery store or walk 1/2 mile without the pain getting worse. Currently suffer with non-stop groin pain on left side (the implant was installed for right side pain) and it’s nonstop lower back pain 24/7. There has to be a better way of life than this. I’ve suffered with legs giving way due to electrical type shooting pains that stem from the lower back, run through the groin and down the front of my legs making my legs buckle and ultimately falling.
My heart goes out to you as I know exactly what you are going through. I haven’t found a solution yet and my unit is at one on the ladder and one on the program, every other programs make the pain 10 fold.
All I can suggest is to keep on calling your device’s rep to try and get some answers. Did they redo the surgery to place the leads in the correct place?
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I had a medtronics SCS implanted back in 2017. Along with meds, it provided decent relief for about 3 years. Then, for some inexplicable reason, it just stopped giving any relief, no matter how many adjustments were made. I will say that my local Medtronics rep was very attentive to my needs, usually meeting me at pain doc's office within a day or two. It was suggested that I have the Medtronics unit replaced with a NEVRO unit. I went through the trial, but they could not get the trial lead in a good spot for testing. The NEVRO rep swore that his unit would definitely provide significant relief. So, I had the NEVRO implanted. They had to use an adapter in order to attach it to the old paddle leads. Guess what? Not an iota of pain relief. No matter how many adjustments were made. I worked with two NEVRO reps who were much more helpful than the people you worked with.
One of the NEVRO reps finally did some closer looking at the original paddle. She said that a number of the electrodes were burned out, possibly causing the lack of pain mitigation. I guess the use of a SCS is a hit and miss thing.