Re: Medtronic Spinal Cord Stimulator

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On 5/27/09, nancy wrote:
> On 3/30/09, nancy morrison wrote:
>> 3/30/
>> Stefanie,
>> I was never informed that they were having any trouble with
>> the leads in the scs unit. I just got out of the hospital
>> after having the leads replaced. They did have a medtronic rep
>> there because they did the initial surgery 2 times before they
>> had it in right. The first time it was in backwards.So it was
>> covering the wrong leg. This time they had me awake for it to
>> ask me questions while they were programing it. I did mention
>> to them the first time that my ribs felt like they were broken
>> and did anyone else feel this way. I even had a list of
>> questions that he took and crinked up saying that he will
>> answer all my questions later.
>>
>> On 3/24/09, Stefanie wrote:
>>> On 3/16/09, June wrote:
>>>> I am scheduled to have the implant the end of March. My
>>>> girlfriend put me onto this chatboard and after reading
>>>> some of the things that can & do go wrong I'm thinking of
>>>> cancelling the surgery....QUESTION: is there any Good news
>>>> about this unit! I could really use some help right about
>>>> now!
>>>
>>> On 3/23/09 ;
>>> This is my first time on any site about the scs.
>>> I had my scs implanted in Jan 08, and things seemed fine at
>>> first. I never really got the pain relief that I was hoping
>>> for. It helped about 50&37; for the pain in my legs but
>> actually
>>> made my back pain worse and caused me to have pain in areas
>> of
>>> my back which I had never had before. With in weeks the
>>> battery pack (which was implanted in the upper right buttocks
>>> area) had moved and then was constantly pushing against my
>>> skin from inside out. I was in pain, I could not sit, and
>> the
>>> area was black & blue all the time. After much complaining I
>>> was told that I must have popped stitches and that was why
>> the
>>> battery pack was protruding out so far. I was offered to have
>>> the battery taken out and replaced with a smaller & newer
>>> battery unit in March 09. After that surgery (on March 17) I
>>> was received a phone call from my doctor a day later and told
>>> I had an infection (they did not know what kind) but they had
>>> scraped the area out on 3/17 and I was put on antibiotics.
>> My
>>> incision site continued to spread the redness out further, so
>>> I was told to go to the ER on March 21st, I was admitted and
>>> was informed of two options. One was they would remove the
>>> battery pack, scrap the site again, put in a drain, they
>>> would disconnect the lead wires and tuck then up out of place
>>> (so the infection would not spread up the wires) and then in
>>> 6-8 weeks I could have another battery pack implanted.
>> Second
>>> option was to remove the scs completely. I chose to have the
>>> scs removed completely that day.
>>> It has only been two days since the scs was removed. The
>>> doctors office called and informed me that the infection I
>>> have is a Staph infection.
>>> I have to stay on antibiotics for 3 more weeks and have a
>>> follow up appointment with my doctor on April 4th. At that
>>> time they will determine if I will need any additional
>> surgery
>>> or what the next steps will be.
> My husband last month had his stimulator taken out because of a
> very bad staph infection. He has to have pic line antibiotics
and
> has actually been recieving those for 5 weeks. This was not
> something we were informed about, and he also had problems with
> the battery pack. His was doing the same thing it had slipped
out
> of the pocket and was pressing against the stitches.His was
> placed in the same area. Now since the stimulators removal and
> the leads he is having back problems that he did not have before
> ans leg weakness that he did not suffer from before. Hindsight
is
> 20/20 and if we had one inkling this would happen he would not
> have had this procedure done. It solved nothing but created more
> problems.