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Is there a group here for spinal cord stimulator recipients?

Posted by moish @moish, Dec 5 10:47am

I've had a Boston Scientific SCS for a year now. Its certainly helped hugely with the sciatic pain I had. But it has a few strange side effects, a couple of which I'd like to discuss.

Interested in more discussions like this? Go to the Spine Health Support Group.

oley56 | @oley56 | 1 day ago
In reply to @heisenberg34 "That seems to be a common complaint for these SCS's. My trial of the Medtronic unit..." + (show)
@heisenberg34

That seems to be a common complaint for these SCS's. My trial of the Medtronic unit gave me about 80% pain reduction. The permanent implant gave about 50% pain mitigation. It was still enough to make life more bearable. Until it just stopped working.

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Interesting, the same thing happened to me & my brother. The trial went pretty good and when it was permanently implanted it didn’t work as good as the trial. My pain level is about 40% better, I’m extremely disappointed with my doctors and with the Medtronic Rep. Now I have bladder and prostate issues from overstimulation in my opinion.

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oley56 | @oley56 | 1 day ago

I am a 69-year-old young man who has chronic back and leg pain. My L5 & S1 discs are shot, bone on bone. I didn’t want major back surgery so my pain management doctor suggested a spinal cord stimulator. I did the trial and everything went OK and decided to have it permanently implanted. After a few months and different reprogramming I noticed issues with my bladder and prostate. Talked with all my docs and asked them if they ever heard of the possibility of overstimulation? Everyone said never heard of overstimulation from SCS. Well, my symptoms progressed to the point where I had so much pain in my prostate I couldn’t sit. I went to my urologist after several visits and he informed me that I had some nerve damage in my bladder & chronic prostatitis. I decided to shut off the SCS and within 24 hours 80% of the pain went away. Has anyone had any side effects from a spinal cord stimulator?

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vikkitennis | @vikkitennis | 1 day ago
In reply to @oley56 "I’ve had my Medtronic SCS for 16 months. The trial went well then I decided to..." + (show)
@oley56

I’ve had my Medtronic SCS for 16 months. The trial went well then I decided to have it surgery implanted. This was for chronic back pain and leg pain. My L5/S1 discs are gone, bone on bone. I’m 69 years old and didn’t want major back surgery. After the surgery things went well for a few months. Then I noticed I had issues emptying my bladder. Talked to my pain doc and the Med. Rep and said they never heard overstimulation of the bladder? They changed the programs several times because I still had back and leg pain. Now I have chronic prostatitis and bladder issues. Anyone in the group experienced side effects like this?

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I appreciate your forthcoming, on what many patients with SCS are coming to realize the device isn’t what it promised to be, and leads to other problems.
I am wondering about the paddles implanted along the thoracic spinal column and if the others experience pain when standing for a prolong period of time. It aches, where I need to rest, to alleviate the pain in between the shoulder blades.
Also, I continue to work the core, lower spine, shoulders and knees ( shoulder and knee replacement in the last 7 years) i attended PT at Mayo, yet with five sessions, and daily exercises, the pain on left side has intensified, down the lower left leg. I am wondering if the levoscoliosis is becoming worse, creating more pain down the left side, where the curvature ends?

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