Re: Medtronic Spinal Cord Stimulator

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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% 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.