Youve only been off the opiates for a short time. It took my body about 18 days to actually stop overreacting to every little bit of input once I stopped them. I read all the remarks on the internet and thought it would be no more than a week. I remember being disappointed and worried. But it did eventually calm down.

I used magnesium and B vitamins to help the muscles and nerves calm down.

Hope you feel better soon.

Just talked to my dr, we're going to try & reprogram Wednesday, and readjust meds if need be. Hopefully the reprogramming does the trick!

so sorry thing just stopped helping you....wowsa....well hope that Wed he gets it back on the helping side of things....Hugs

Hi Pink. I've had my SCS for almost 5 years. At first, I forgot that I can choose between the few programs I have. Maybe you could ask them to give you several programs to choose from. My preference is the highest frequency, so all of my programs are around the higher frequency levels, and the amplitude stops one level below tazer, giving me enough signal to last hopefully forever.

Don't forget to re-charge every week. My signal is best right after a re-charge. I just re-charged and the feeling is "ahhhh". I don't know who invented this thing 50 years ago, but I'm forever in their debt.

Good luck at your doc appt.

Pink so sorry to hear the SCS is not as smooth as you would hope.

I hope the reprogramming helps. I don't think it would be a bad thing to have even low level meds for a bit.

You're incredible to go through all this.

Hugs

It will take your body a little while to stop looking for the Narcotics and expecting them to do the job. This is whey they often leave time between stopping the pain meds and doing the programming on the SCS. Once the SCS is in it takes a little bit for all of the surgical swelling and such to go down, so you may just need to give it a little more time.

I go today for my programming... at 11. hopefully it helps!

Will be sending lots of positive energy and prayers for you.

I hope the programing today is successful and your pain diminishes significantly.

Please let us know how you are doing. Stay strong.
Hugs-RJ

I had an SCS for over 2 years. They reprogrammed it like 10 times.
No matter what they did, I could never get rid of the low back pain. The Doctor finally told me a while after the first year; that the nerves for the low back are so deep in the spinal cord; that they are like the Holy Grail for the SCS. For me to get any relief in my low back; I had to crank it up so high; all m innards in my belly would start to spasm.
It did work great for m leg pain; but never helped for my low back and SI Joint pain. Which is where I hurt the most.

So after about 2.5 years of no significant help; I had it removed.

Like anything else; it is different for everyone. Some people get great results. Others; like me get very minimal results. Frankly; after all the surgeries I have had; I think there was just too much metal; and way too much scar tissue for it to help.

But I hope you are in the group it will work for. Give it a fair chance to work; and keep insisting on getting it reprogrammed if it I s not helping. I had like 14 different programs on mine. Some helped more than others; but for ME; it was not the miracle cure they led me to believe it was.

Now I have just tried an RFA procedure. It really is helping the pain in m Facet nerves at L4-L5, and L5-S1; but he could not get the needle through all the bolts, screws and plates I have in my low back to reach the SI joint. So I still have the majority of my pain; as that is where it is originating from. Anti-inflammatory drugs .like ibruprophine would help; but I am allergic to them.

So now that the SCS is removed; it is back on the Percocet. It has proven over the last 17 years, to be the only thing that gives me any relief at all. My last Doctor found just the right amount of pills that would keep me comfortable; yet not make me so stoned, that I could not function; which was 4 a day.. When he retired; my new Doctor will only give me 2 a day. And it is just not enough. So I spend 12 hours of every 24 hours in screaming pain. This RFA procedure is I think the only one that I had not tried before. If he would have been able to hit the SI joint; I think it would have worked. But no matter how hard he tried; he just could not get to the nerves there like he could for the ones in the spinal column.

So I really hope yours does the trick, once they get it programmed right.

Classiccarman-

I go again in a month for more tweaking right now he just added the adaptive stim and gave me six positions to lock in. Every time I moved positions it felt different or nothing at all, and I was having to adjust the voltage up & down too often. The Medtronic rep told me the leads need to scar in more too so they dont move when I do.

My Dr said my piriformis syndrome should go away but I think after having it for 2 years, its not going anywhere.

Im hoping itll end up working for me if not exploratory surgery is the next step, cutting my bum open to look around & see what they can cut to relieve the tension.

This has been FAR from the miracle cure I was told it was Im now back to feeling the same amount of pain, but are no longer being treated by the doctor unless something goes wrong & I need to see him again. His hopes are that Ill get such relief that in a few years he can take it out & Ill be great.

IDK I was given my last script of pain meds yesterday, so glad to be going off them, but nervous, because pain is a bitch, and so far this SCS isnt doing anything but giving a weird sensation down my leg.