My ex-husband had a spinal stimulator put in after his back surgery as he has permanent nerve damage down his legs. He said it helped from awhile, replacing the pain in his legs with stimulation and of tingling. He had a lot of trouble adjusting it from sitting, to laying down, to standing- he'd get zapped! Just my feedback. I do hope you get more responses from others who have had experiences with one or other. xoLyn

The spinal cord stimulator is good for leg pain from what I was told when they were going to do an implant on me. I think the pain pump is better for back pain, as it delivers medication directly into your spine. I don't know if it is going o work for systemic chronic pain. Why are they trying to push the SCS and pain pump on you when you are on such a low dose of pain medication? That is all of the advice I can give you on this. I'm sure someone who actually has had ones of these devices implanted will give you some more information. Hugs.

J

I am not a huge fan of stimulators.
As far as I know, they don't just place the generator, but they have to remove a rib too.

I've never heard of a pain pump or a spine simulator before, but since I have pretty bad back pain as well it seems interesting.

Hi , when I first read your post I was going o say Spine stimulator but now that I read all your conditions and read that they can't perform surgery I would lean toward the Pain Pump.
i am a Medic in Oregon. I would ask you is you are bed bound or if you are still active. I knew a woman who had a Pain pump but she was bed bound with COPD. It makes a difference because when you are bed bound you have all that medication flowing through your system and it just kind of sits there and causes other problems .

lyner is correct in what she is saying about the stimulator. It is not going to work for long because allots doing is replacing your pain with an electric low shock. I would go with The Pain Pump.

I'm a bit confused by something you said in your Post. You said that you've been on losw dose opiates for 10 yrs, only 10mg. or less...but you also said your on the Fentanyl patch, and that is not a low dose, low mg. "no big deal" narcotic.

Fentanyl is 100 times more potent than Oral Morphine. A 12 micro gram Fentanyl patch is equal to 30 milligrams of Morphine.

100 mcg Fentanyl = 1 mg Morphine

I point this out because you are not using a small dose, small narcotic. Fentanyl is the strongest Narcotic/Opioid medication there is.

So, yes if you could get a PCP it would probably help you quite a bit. I'm not sure what type of medication they're talking about putting in your pump. As far as deciding on a Spinal Nerve Stimulator that decision would come solely from you and you deciding what kind of pain you have, what kind you have most often, nerve or musculature/bone/tendon. It your pain is more "nerve related" then the Spine Stimulator would probably be more beneficial.

This is something that's going to require some research, perhaps input from your Neurologist, if he handles your nerve pain issues. The thing about these 2 devices is they don't so much cross over and deal with both types of pain, 1 is very good for nerve pain and 1 is very good for physical pain related to muscle/bone/tendon pain.

This isn't a decision that others can decide for you because it's your body and only you know what type of pain is affecting you the most. One good thing is that these guys come with a trial period so that you can see how they work on your pain.

I realize this is a really tough decision, and I hope that you find the one that works for you.

Take care,