Spinal cord stimulator support

@smithki
Depends on insurance possibly but if you want it out, i dont see how you can be refused. Pls if thats your decision FIGHT for removal, 2 surgeons tried "stonewalling' and placating me to just leave mine in...I cant prove it but I had 7 bulging discs and 1 badly herniated 4 months after inplant. I read these devices can indirectly contribute to this. Gd luck.!

@smithki
No .. insurance will pay .. I had over 60k spent myself trying to fix myself threw treatments .. my insurance would not cover me any more when it went above 40k they pulled the plug .. I was a customer of there’s 30yrs .. I would never bother again ..

@smithki got mine in 2014 .. it kept breaking down … then I was told the wrong leds were fitted , and I could not have an mri . It kept breaking down .. it’s stopped working completely in 2019 , it was driving my blood pressure up from pain it was left in my body till sept 2024 .. I was put to sleep completely.. never felt a think .. but getting it in was a different story .. I was 6 hrs in surgery awake , to were to put the leads .. then I was wheeled out of surgery to be told they could not get the led up my back .. and they would have to retry surgery again. .. we are pure guepigs for them there just chancing there arms in my opinion..

@daxel79 I hear you! My PM doc manages my pain pump and that's about it. The pump has not given me any pain relief in two and a half years(except for ONE DAY). I have practically begged him to look for something else to give me some help. But no. He lacks any empathy and refuses to reach out to colleagues for consultation because he knows just about everything. There are no other PM docs in the area that manage pain pumps so I am stuck.

@anthony29621
That’s good because it is looking like it is coming out, thanks Anthony

I’m so sorry you’re going through this. I thought for sure a pain pump would be the answer to my prayers for pain relief, but now I’m hearing so many stories of how they don’t work. I’m guessing once you switch to a pain pump they won’t give you oral pain meds anymore?? Sounds exactly my pm Dr! Horrible bedside manners, offers no ideas for other treatment options, he has no empathy and has even yelled at me when I confronted him on something he had said to me at the previous appt. He claims to be a CRPS specialist but he barely knows anything about it!!

All of these stories are pretty scary to me. I had terrible pain before I was diagnosed with cross and had a Medtronic scs put in last year. I have had 85 to 90% relief using it. I have to nurses from Medtronic who have adjusted it when needed. Sometimes I have some pain below the battery but it goes away. I still take Tramadol in the morning and sometimes sit with my legs up on pillows using a heating pad and that’s very helpful for my left knee pain. Some days I also take a cbd gummy around 4:00 and that makes me very loopy but takes the pain away. I’m 86 but still go to the gym 2-3 times a week and go out socially with friends. I just try not to sit for too long as that gets painful. So sorry to hear about the trouble and pain others are experiencing. Guess I have very good doctors who listen and having the nurses available is a godsend!

Sorry it says cross when it should show CRPS. That’s electronics today!!

@daxel79 Sounds pretty much like my pm doc. He hasn't yelled yet. LOL. Time to look into a change. I would, too, but there aren't any other PM docs in my area who manage pain pumps. When I was doing research prior to getting my pain pump, it showed a success rate of 94%. I'm beginning to wonder where they got their numbers.

@gmaj85 I had the Medtronic SCS and it worked fairly well. After two and a half years it suddenly just stopped working. They could never figure out exactly what went wrong. I miss the relief it gave me.