SCS - Horrible Pain Everything went wrong!

[kajari]

The stimulator did a pretty good job of reducing my leg pain by about 25 percent until all went wrong and started shocking my tailbone. I could never get it adusted correctly to work any better. Ever since it has been turned off I am back to the pre-surgery pain, actually a bit worse, radiating down my legs into my feet. It is a horrible burning almost like a hot rod is being shoved down my legs. The SCS never reduced the pain enough that I could stop the pain meds but it made it to where the pain meds were more effective. As far as my back pain....after the SCS surgery and emergency T7-T10 laminectomy I was left with horrible pain banding around my chest just under where my pec muscles stop. I was told that it is coming from T7 T8 area of the spine. This banding has been horrible and if anyone touches this banding or a big portion of my T-Spine Area it feels like I am being burned with a blow tourch. I have to be really careful when sitting in a chair or on the couch because sometimes the pressure from anything will cause this horrible feeling of being burned. The pain radiates around my chest but also radiates up from my T-Spine into my shoulder blades like a "V" pattern. I am really reluctant about the removal of the SCS because I could not bear to feel anymore pain in these areas and I am concerned that the surgery may worsen these symptoms.

[Maria]

Kajari
I know this may not make you feel any better however if just having one more person aware of what you're going thru at least from reading what you wrote and hoping that your painful situation will become much better either with or without some further intervention just know that's what I'm definately hoping happens for you and ASAP. Wishing you far better days and soon~ Maria

[kajari]

Thank you so much for all of the encouragement. I just got off the phone with my Boston Scientific rep. They are no disagreeing with the remove of the SCS as they have done everthing possible to adjust the device without any success. I think I am at the point to where I need to put all of my fears, which were generated from the SCS surgery that caused these horrible complications, and go ahead with the removal of the device. The hard part is going to be finding a Surgeon who will take it out. Since we fired the surgeon who did this to me it will be even more difficult for any surgeon to speak with him and get the real truth about what happened or what mistakes were made.

Take Care,
Greg

[kajari]

It has been one year since the implant of the spinal cord stimulator when the surgery went horribly wrong. After months of consulting with a neurosurgeon I have decided to let the surgeons remove the spinal cord stimulator. The banding pain around my chest has become a lot worse about 7 on pain scale and the loss of feeling in my abdomen and parts of my back has become wide spread. Everything has become a lot worse. Consulting with my neurosurgeon he things that removing the spinal cord stimulator may alleviate some of this pain and loss of feeling. He will not know how bad the scar tissue and what exactly is going on until he does the surgery. He is also worried about my dura since the last surgeon accidentially cut open the dura which caused me to loose l large amount of cerebral (sp) fluid ultimately causing the surgeon to fill the hole in my dura with a special foam that stopped the leak. My surgeon told me that because there were problems with my dura the risk of problems with this surgery is a lot higher. I do now have any hopes of alleviating the pain after what happened to me with the last surgery in March 2010. I am getting desperate as the pain has become quite unbearable. I will be having the surgery this Friday (April 8th). I will update the list after I am home and can sit long enough to send an update

[dshobbies]

Kajari,

You are indeed living the nightmare that we all feared when undergoing spinal surgery. Though I do hope you someday find out what went so wrong, my much stronger wish is that your pain is alleviated and your sanity is restored to normal. I can't even describe how horrible I feel for your circumstances.

Maybe by next week the sun will shine again. My thoughts are with you -

Dale

[kajari]

Thank you for the nice response. The surgeon did tell me one thing that he thinks the last surgeon did wrong. The surgeon accidentally cut a hole in my dura during the surgery. When he cut the dura they filled it with some type of surgical foam to stop the leak. Two days later the surgeon did an emergency laminectomy from T6 to T10 and at the same time he implanted the permanent SCS leads. The leads were placed directly over where he had cut the dura. The Neurosurgeon I have now thinks that because the last surgeon placed the leads over the tear in the dura that the scare tissue formed from the dura and partially around the leads. He will have to be very careful to remove the scar tissue without damaging the dura during my surgery this Friday. He promised to document any of his findings for me. I really want to know what the last surgeon did to cause so much damage, pain, and loss of feeling.

[Maria]

You found someone honest that is telling you what may happened and if he actually documents findings and tells you about them that's good too. I hope if he does surgery you'll have some much needed relief and soon. I'm sorry to hear how badly things have been going for you. Please keep us updated.