Another step closer to getting the spinal cord stimulator

We met with with the physician again yesterday who will do the proceedure and I really like him. He is very kind and explains everything. I've had my psych eval now so they have resubmitted the info to the insurance company. Hopefully this time  things will go smoothly and in about 3 to 4 weeks I can have the trial stimulator in.

So keep your fingers crossed as these last few weeks have been off the charts with pain. I'll try to read some scripts to see how you all are doing. I can't stay at the computer long so it takes me a while to get cought up.

Wishing everyone a good day.........Nurse2

Nurse2,

My fingers & toes are crossed. Having been through this myself, I know how frustrating it is. I truly hope that they say yes, but if not, don't give up fighting. It took me 6 mo and multiple appeals to get my approval & I'm so glad that I did, because my stim has changed my life. At my 6 week follow-up today, my surgeon told me how he took provers pleasure writing the insurance company docs that twice denied my stim trial about how wrong they were & how much my stim was helping me! Assuming everything continues to go well for me with my stim 6 mo to a year from now, he even plans on writing up my case in one of the medical journals.

Don't get me wrong, I still have pain & it's still quite severe at times. But most of the day I get 50 - 60% relief from my stimulator & I couldn't ask for anything better. At my follow-up today, my Medtronics rep was actually commenting about how he's never seen anyone use their stim quite as much as me. According to his read-outs, I use it 98% of the time. It's partly because I'm in constant pain, but also partly because when I feel it's not helping as much, I cycle through my programs & then play with different settings in order to get the coverage that I need, whereas many people might just turn it off for a while. It all just goes to show that you need to fight for what you need and deserve, because in the end, you're the only one who is going to know whether or not the stim will help you & you at least deserve a chance to find out.

hugs,
Skeye

Congrats! Wishing you smoother sailing from here on out & I hope the SCS works well for you.

Being able to follow the strict restrictions is so key to getting it to work. That was the worst part for me. :)