Nervous...scared...anxious...

enigma57 said
:thumbsup: Wish you all the best. Been there, done that as to injuries and pain meds. I made the choice to discontinue the pain meds a year following back and knee surgery. Hated being muddle headed. Besides, they only took a little of the edge off the pain for about 2 hours and couldn't take them but every 4 hours. TENS unit didn't help a bit. Neither did injections. So I just made the decision to live with the pain as best as I can and got off the meds. That was 24 years ago. Hope this new procedure works for you. Chronic pain is no fun at all.

We are having some bad weather here just now. Heavy rain, hail, lightning, wind gusts over 70 MPH. Tornado watch just expired. So will post this whilst we still have electric.

Best regards,

Harry

Thanks. I know the "muddle headed" feeling all to well. I am very hopeful that I can at least lower the dose of my Dopioids, actually I am hoping to get off of them entirely. The TENS unit is just...what the hell did the doc call it...superficial (?). This is entirely different. The electrodes are actually placed above where my pain is being generated. My L3 disc has slipped a bit, my L5 is herniated into my spinal canal. As one of the docs put it...my back is twisted up between L3 and S1. Anyway, the electrodes are actually placed in the thoracic area of my back. If I remember correctly they are covering the L1-L4 area. Guessing that is how they work, they place the stimulation above the area generating the pain so that the electrical charge generated by the pain is intercepted/interrupted by the stimulator. The one I am currently wearing, as well as the permanent one have both types of stimulation, the type you feel (just like the TENS) and the one you don't. Right now I am on the one you don't feel. When they were wiggling the leads in the turned it on and set it to the stimulation that I could feel....turned it up far enough that it actually made my toes wiggle around.
My plan is to get off the pain meds, even if it means I am in pain so that I can have this thing put in...
Implant - Targeted Drug Delivery for Chronic Pain
In talking with the surgeon that said cutting is not going to happen, his PA, my Primary Care doc and the staff at the pain clinic about the pump it sounds like a far better option than popping pills. The medication is injected right into the area where the pain is being generated. So instead of popping pills and "coating" the pain receptors (more like most all of the receptors of your brain) the medication works on managing the pain locally instead of in your brain. They all have told me that this eliminates that "muddle headed" way of existence. The other thing that I liked the sounds of is instead of taking milligrams of narcotics you will only be on micro-grams. The one doc told me that if I were to do the math what I pop in pills in one day right now would more than likely be what I use in a 2-3 week period.
Sorry for rambling...just so jazzed that this things appears to be working. I am going to grab one my cameras and go outside to take some pictures of our poop shooters playing in the snow...I am hoping that it takes my mind off of the itching.....all this tape is starting to make me itch...
Harry, Thank You for the well wishes. Hopefully the storm did not cause any damage....