I am sorry but I do not understand what it is that does not make sence to you about the SCS.

I am just guessing that it may be the way one works to reduce your pain.

All brands of SCS's work the same way. They scramble the pain signals your body sends to your brain so your brain does not reconise the signals as pain signals. In other words they trick your brain into thinking it is not recieving pain signals.

The SCS is considered a success if it reduces your pain by 50%. Some people get more than 50% reduction in their pain some less. But lets face it. Most people are so very happy to get some pain relief that they go ahead and have the implant.

You will still have to take oral pain meds with the SCS but some can reduce the ammount they are taking.

Te SCS does not work for everyone but more get some relief than the ones it does not help.

It did not work for me. All it did was tingle on top of my pain. Not a good feeling at all. I now have a pain pump implant. The only time I have to take oral pain meds is when I an having a flare up in my psin!!

People who have an SCS just loves them. I love my pain pump. What is not to love about something that relieve's your pain?

I do hope this helps. Best of luck to you.

Cheers
Patsy W

Yes I know that but what a joy to meet someone who also knows about them and is so articulate in describing them. You'd be surprised, or maybe not, how many people don't. I'm sorry yours didn't work I get such a kick out of people who say, "Yeah but there's a 50/50 chance of (this or that) working". I spent 30+ years taking those odds and mostly being on the winning end of them until I finally, because of an accident, had to have a 4-level lumbar spinal fusion via TLIF; another 50/50 at best proposition. But, and much to the surprise of most everyone including my own neurosurgeon, I'm back riding and roping and cowboying on our ranch my wife and I are retiring to. I'm happy to hear you didn't give up hope and now are pain-free yourself too. Anyway, that said, I was wondering about people's experience, if any because it's so new, with specifically the new Epiducer. Any thoughts?

I just had my appointment about the st jude scs. The way it was explained is using it with the newer flat leads, the leads work a litle diferent then the regular leads,

Dr made a diogram to show me each section of the leads has diferent sections so the stimulation can be directed to each section of the lead, Regular leads cant be controled the same way from what i understud, This is the only reason i am having a 3 rd and last trial with scs in my 8 years,

They feel the regular leads used on me in the past could not be directed to where my pain is needed to be covered and controled,

But each scs has diferent ways they work it and dr decides which one he feels will work based on past history if a person had failed scs trial before,

As he described they are not the same and the diference can be as much as the diference between of the mercedes model or the yugo model,

I want the mercedes model i told him because i would not be cought dead in a yugo,
Jan 27 is my 3 rd trial and as many times as it failed before, i think this dr is the 1 that can make it work knowing the complication i already had before,

Dr realy has to know where leads need to be placed for it to work as intended otherwise its nothing but a waste of time and money,

I will test drive the mercedes scs for 5 days, kick the tires, crash test it and see what gives, I just hope i dont llight myself up like a christmas tree like before,

Git-ir-done

I had 2 trials with St. Jude's equipment last month (December 2011) here in northern Virginia. I don't know if it was this particular model as I wasn't aware there were different models. My first trial was for pain in the lumbar (L5-S1) region. I had lots of tingling across my lower back and down to my ankles. We had to make several adjustments because I also had tingling in a sensitive part of my male anatomy if you catch my drift! A couple of weeks later, I had my 2nd trial in my lumbar region. The 2nd trial was a lot better for me as the doc was better able to focus on the local area rather than down the entire nerve path. I'm supposed to have the permanent implanted. Actually, it was supposed to have been done this past Monday, 1/16/2012 but the doctor's office messed up the insurance authorization. I'm torn really about getting the permanent SCS as my relief in the lumbar region was only around 25% to 30% but it is helpful and I'll take all the help I can get. The doc's office called yesterday and said they are working on scheduling the procedure. I'll post when I have the procedure. Best of luck to you all.

I am in the same boat and just did the counsel today for the test implant it is good that I do not feel alone here.Now I am just waiting for the Insurance approval.

I pray it all works out for you guys.