All clear for SCS

Hi all

I made it through pre op this time. I have to be back to the VA hospital at 9am tomorrow for an 11am surgery. Seems there is a bit of a difference of opinion between the surgeon and the anesthesiologist though. My surgeon says awake and my anesthesiologist says he thinks general would be better and wants to talk to the surgeon today.
Oh well, either way I am excited to be finally getting this done. After 5 years of lots of trial and errors I am hopeful this will work as well as the trial did or better. I am hoping to lower the amount of meds I now take also. Since this CP is so mentally draining as well, I might be able to at least lower some of my other meds.
I will be on the road at 7am tomorrow and will give an update when I am coherent enough to see the key board tomorrow


Take care,
Bill

Thanks Shell!

I am headed out to the VA hospital. Now the nerves have started a bit. Talk to Y'all later.

Take care,
Bill

Hi all

Surgery went well. I had to be awake for the whole thing though. They tried to do most of it with twilight sedation, but I wouldn't hold still. So they had to wake me up and did it with me awake. The bone removal was quite painful along with them making the pocket for the battery. I had to stay until the 8th because of pain management.
My surgeon was great and he was the one who suggested stay a couple days. He also made sure the nurses knew to make sure I was as pain free as possible. The 2 night nurses I had were wonderful. They could tell just by looking at me when I needed more meds and stayed on top of it all night.
They did manage to get complete coverage of both sides of my ribs. I wasn't ready for the amount of pain the incisions gave me though. If I stayed still it was good, but move one inch and instant 10!

The day nurse would tell me I was going home and looked a bit confused when he told her not for a couple days at least.

Take care,
Bill

Hey bill, I'm new to the site but I was reading that you had gotten your SCS implant. Congrats to you. I have an SCS implanted for rib pain. Mine works great for both sides. It was originally put in for left side pain from nerve damage. It also covers the right rib area and from middle to upper back pain too. I have a second SCS implanted for my lower back and hip/ leg pain. They work great. Lots of luck to you.... Janet

Shell-

The numbing had started to wear off on my spine by the time they were finishing up. My surgeon had already decided I would stay 1 night for sure since I live over 1.5 hours away. I had a good feeling about my surgeon from day one that he had a good bedside manner and would be very helpful with pain management and stuff.
My anesthesiologist told me that there was no way he could have made it through the surgery awake as I did. Then he told me had has a lot of good drugs for me in recovery. I definitely needed them.
He and my surgeon stopped by about 9pm and after talking to me that is when he decided I was going to be stuck there at least 2 more nights. I am very thankful for this.

Janet- With my trial they couldn't get the 2nd lead high enough to cover my right side all the way, but my tech said she should be able to get it with the paddle inserted for the permanent one. I am glad to hear yours works well also.

SB- After reading what RM went through I was worried they would send me out the door the next morning no matter what. You hear all kinds of things with the VA. I have been the the University of Iowa and the VA there and have gotten the same great treatment from both. The surgeon who helped with mine thought I could leave latter the next morning, but my surgeon was shaking his head no the whole time behind him

Thought that was funny. My surgeon also had my PM doctor come up and discuss my pain with her. She made some adjustments and told me she wasn't going to let me leave until they could keep my pain at a 5 or less. They used some different meds I haven't ever tried and the combination worked very well. I was put as a fall risk because of the meds, but that just gave me someone to talk to on my walks.

Take care,
Bill

Hi all-

Another update: Got the staples out....what a relief! Just from removing them the stimulation moved very close to where it wa right after surgery, so I opted to wait a couple more weeks to see how things go before programming it again.

Take care,
Bill