Can any Advise Re: Spinal Cord Stimulator for Pelvic/Abdominal Pain?

From: Michelle (mooshell6@hotmail.com)
Wed May 22 13:40:45 2002


My pain clinic doc wants to do a trial of a spinal cord stimulator in an effort to treat my chronic pelvic/abdominal pain. He first suggested in a discussion with my husband and myself close to 1 year ago. He said that although it is frequently used for pain in the back & extremeties, it is more uncommon and an "off-label" use when used for pelvic/abdominal pain. He said that there were only three doctors that he would trust to do this- one in CA, one in TX and the third in TN (I still have the paper that he wrote them down on). When we asked him why he couldn't do it, his reply was something like, "I could do it - but you wouldn't want me to!" We were to pick one of the three docs and let him know & he would contact that doc & set up an appointment. Well, I guess he forgot he said that because when I called to let him know who we selected, he said, "Oh, you don't have to do that - I'll do the surgery". Of course the alarm bells were clanging and the red flags were waving when he said that. When I politely pointed out that he had just told us not to trust him to do the surgery (not in those words of course) he just blew me off and insisted that I proceed & schedule the surgery with him. Thats when I decided to go another route and sought out the PA Docs for lysis of adhesions. Unfortunately, that surgery only provided temporary relief and now that the pain is back he is really pressuring me to allow him to proceed with this implant.

Quite frankly, I am afraid. I am afraid that having something like this implanted into my body will only create more adhesions and more problems. I'm not so sure I want this at all, but if I did decide to do it, I would be afraid to allow him to perform the procedure.

I was wondering if anyone here has undergone this procedure and could share their experience - good or bad. Any opinions, comments or support would also be greatly appreciated.

Thanks for listening.

--
Michelle

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