Re: Medtronic Spinal Cord Stimulator

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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.