Re: Medtronic Spinal Cord Stimulator

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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.