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Nerve Stimulation

A Waiting Game

The neurosurgeon gave us some insight, but also made the decision more difficult. He doesn’t think that removing the leads and keeping the battery is a good idea. Because the main risk with the surgery is infection, removing them now to have another surgery down the line to either replace them or remove the battery [...]

Inconclusive

X-rays showed that leads haven’t slipped significantly. Since I can still feel the leads move when I move my right arm or shoulder, it’s pretty clear that they will slip more. My doctor answered all our questions candidly, but nothing he said makes the decision any easier.
The Medtronic rep reprogrammed the leads with the hope [...]

A Stimulating Week

Thanks for all the messages of support you’ve sent. Knowing you’re backing me up is very comforting. And “talking” through my thoughts and pros and cons is helping me get sorted.
I’m still in pretty good spirits, but am agonizing over my options. Yesterday was the first day I was painfully bored, which isn’t too bad [...]

Does it Even Work?

I can’t stop wondering if my nerve stimulator reduces my pain at all. In the first six months I had it, I had a three month period with no severe pain. Not one day, or even part of one day, was spent in bed because of a headache. I cling to that time as proof [...]

The Big But

The stimulator isn’t causing me much pain anymore, but…
The leads feel like they’ve moved significantly. I accidentally hit the bottom of my right breast and I could feel the left lead wiggle. When I bend my head forward more than about 20 degrees, I can feel it wiggle.
Because I can feel a vibration when the [...]

Lead Migration 2006

Today I intended to post pictures of my freshly painted kitchen, but it looks the same as it did on Wednesday morning. Instead of painting, I’ve spent the last five days lying on the couch because my nerve stimulator leads (or wires) started to move.
I felt the first twinge when I was teaching myself to [...]

News From Annual Pain Meeting

The proceedings at the American Academy of Pain Medicine’s annual meeting last week haven’t been reported on widely, but there has been news on a few topics of interest to chronic headache patients.
Opioid Blood Levels in High Dose, Chronic Pain Patients
Higher than expected opioid blood concentrations in pain patients treated with opioid therapies lead a [...]

New Nerve Stimulation Category

Against my obsessive need for tight and neat parallel category titles, I’ve added the creatively named new category, Nerve Stimulation. It’s far more important for you all to easily access the information you need than it is for me to satisfy my internal copy editor.

The Ultimate Question

The question I get asked the most is how much my nerve stimulator helps me. This simple question is surprisingly difficult to answer. The response depends on how I feel that particular hour, what the previous day or week or month was like, how resentful I am of the little wires that restrict my movement, [...]

Nerve Stimulator-Imposed Restrictions

After I had my stimulator about a year, Medtronic began publishing Living Well, a newsletter about the company’s implanted stimulation devices and drug delivery systems. According to the newsletter’s nerve stimulation FAQs, these activities might be harmful: using an electric blanket, skiing, sledding, golfing, amusement park rides. These are in addition to the limitations I’ve [...]