Hello,
New guy here with the possibility of getting a SCS.
I am 47 years old and have been very active up until they found "the alien" growing inside my spinal cord. I used to hunt/shoot, cycle, weight lifting, run and stayed in good shape. My wife and I like to travel and ride our motorcycle. Things I like to do are a lot harder now with the pain getting worse and the pain meds not working.
A bit of brief medical history:
I had a spinal cord tumor removed Jan. 2006. My NS did a laminectomy at T11, T12, and L1 to remove it. Since then the pain in the surgery area has never gone away. I have had facet joint injections, epidural injections, RF nearublation (sp?) and therapy. Nothing has worked for me.
Since then I was refered to a new NS due to an insurance change and he has since referred me to a new pain management doctor. They are considering a SCS.
I am tired of taking drugs as they seem to not work anyway.
I found this sight after researching SCS implants.
Now to do more research.
Thanks!
I am so sorry to hear that you have been suffering for so long. I am not experienced with an SCS but have read posts from many members here about it. It seems as if it works it works very well. Hopefully it will work for you and help you to get your life back. Most chronic pain patients do have to make some adjustments to our way of life but I think that most of us are able to get some type of relief whether it be from long acting or nerve pain meds, conservative treatments and even the SCS. I will keep my fingers crossed for you and please keep us posted.
I am in no way associated with the medical field. Anything that I post comes from personal experience only.
DDD, Facet Arthropathy, DJD,Collapsed Disc, Sleep Apnea
PT, Epidurals, Facet Blocks,Medial Branch Block, Rhizotomy,Discogram,Annular Tare L3/L4 Endoscopic MicroD and PLDD,
Methadone, Percocet, Baclofen, Welbutrin
There is a section of the forum called "Pain Management" under the Treatment section. You will find many threads there pertaining to spinal cord stimulators.
In addition to the forums, there are many helpful articles written by spinal specialists. Here is one with some information about SCS:
http://www.spine-health.com/treatment/back-surgery/spinal-cord-stimulati...
and a little video:
http://www.spine-health.com/video/spinal-cord-stimulator-implant-video
Hope you will post with your comments and questions as they occur to you. A number of people on the board have SCS and are quite pleased with the results. Others are in the process of getting on...so you should be able to get most of your questions answered.
Gwennie
I have no medical training. Comments are based on personal experience and lots of research and reading.
PLIF @ L4-5 with Peek cage, rods and screws Jan 2008
Lami-foraminotomy L5-S1 Jan 2009
Fusion L3-S1 coming up -- 1 June
hi and welcome to the forum!
we are here to offer you support and answer what questions we can. several of our members have an SCS and are very happy with it. 
i hope you will be too. they find they can be very active as well. good luck and keep us informed. 
Jenny 
be impeccable with your word..