![]() There was very little about it on the Internet that was not published by the manufacturers themselves. Nobody in my life had ever heard of a spinal cord stimulator, including a few nurses I know. Even my doctor suggested I research and think about it some more. With the spinal cord stimulator, there are risks and a high possibility of failure. With the lumbar fusion, the decision was easy, simply because the doctor recommended it. This was not an easy decision to make, and I spent a lot of time researching this procedure. If the test works, the unit is surgically implanted inside you. You start out with a seven-day trial period where the stimulator is outside of your body but still attached to the spinal cord through a break in the skin. It is operated via remote control and has basic settings that need to be constantly adjusted. In short, a spinal cord stimulator is like a Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation (TENS) unit inside of you that sends electrical currents to the spinal cord. He reminded me that he did not make a commission off of sales of this equipment, and I believe him to this day. The doctor started handing me information about the spinal cord stimulator and gave me the number to the Medtronic rep in the Chicago area. New physical therapists weren’t helping, the month-long treatment program at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, one of the best in the country, hadn’t helped, and I couldn’t even feel the injections that were supposed to block pain. Echoes of my previous physiatrist rang through my ears, as he used to tell me surgery was the last resort. The doctor had kept reminding me that it was the last resort, only after shots and other medications were tried. Except for one.įor years, when going to my physiatrist’s (primary back pain doctor) office, I had seen a model for a Medtronic Spinal Cord Stimulator sitting on top of his desk. Nothing has worked, and I have tried everything out there. Seven years ago I even had back surgery, a lumbar fusion at the L5-S1 level of the spine. For the past 17 years, I have been receiving, on and off: physical and occupational therapy, chiropractic therapy, massage, acupuncture and dry needling, acupressure, steroid injections, biofeedback, and every pain medicine in the book. It hurts when I sit, stand, or lie in any one position for more than half an hour. ![]() I have a sitting disability caused by chronic pain in my lower back and left leg. ![]() Why I Passed On the Spinal Cord Stimulator ![]()
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