So, yesterdays bright and cheerful entry was followed by an old man power nap. Seems I qualify for these gifts from above. Anyway, I awoke and proceeded to get my lazy ass out of bed and when my feet hit the floor, I gnu, or knew, we had problems. Instead of feeling a slight tingle sensation, I felt the wrath of God go down my right leg. It was worse then by a long shot as to when I had it turned up. No matter where I had it set, it was painful. So, off it went and I began making phone calls. The rep did not answer and my conversation with Logan Regional Hospital was to say the least a joke.....The Dr on call knew nothing and wouldn't call the Dr who did it. Lovely. The rep finally called back and we have determined that one of the leads shoved up my back has shifted somehow. I was told to leave it off and they will let me know what to do and when to do it. SIGH. My biggest fear returned at this point. Tonight I will have to suffer with the pain again before I fall asleep. Night rolled in and I did my dishes and cleaned up the kitchen and went in to begin my nightly ritual. I am reading a book on the 1899 Klondike gold rush written by a reporter who went to Alaska and lived the rush in person. Anyways, I got into it and read for a few hours then decided I would sleep. Turned the light off and I was gone.... wait.... no pain. I had another pain free night. Sweet! lets hope tonight is the same.
No picture because I am lazy so just keep reading. My opinion on the Medtronics is I want the permanent one in my back! These past few night of falling asleep pain free have been incredible. My legs remaining still and not thrashing about while I grit my teeth in pain has been a blessing. I can see myself losing the need for vicodin every night and finally sleeping better overall. Now I just wait for a final decision from the insurance company as to if they will put in the permanent unit or make me suffer the rest of my life. To those of you with back pain, I would recommend checking out the Medtronics pain stopper. I know it wont remove all of mine but just removing the pre bed pain and allowing me to fall asleep drug free is well worth it!
Next night update: So it is 4 am and I am sitting here wide awake. I made it to sleep just fine but around 3 am the pain finally returned. I was woke up by some evil gremlin stabbing my big toe. Not what I wanted. I got up and took a pain pill and have been surfing the web ever since. I need to get the permanent one in my back asap. I believe in this little invention and would tell all of you that suffer from chronic back pain to see if it would work for you. The last 4 nights were so pleasant.........
It's day 3, just after noon here and I thought I would add more to this new adventure. Last night was hell. I felt as if I had a fever and the pain was back in all of its glory. I can't say as to why it was back, it just was. Between shivering and the constant pain, the night was becoming unbearable. I had crawled into bed and had my blankets over me and decided to add more "kick" to the back unit. I jumped it up to almost 5, (I started at 2.8) and laid down. Now I learned a few new things about the unit last night. One is that if I move a certain way, lay down on my back or cough or sneeze I will feel it doing its job. So, I was laying there actually enjoying the constant massage while good and evil battled. Good eventually won and I was finally able to drift off to sleep. Sleep is good because you don't feel a thing. At about 2 am, i awakened for who knows why and decided I was thirsty. Here comes lesson 2.
I was standing in front of the fridge when I suddenly began to cough like an old truck on a cold morning. Big mistake. For some reason, muscle movement intensifies the shock. Sitting here right now I cannot feel a thing. But, if I cough, I feel the shocks in my legs. Well, the huge ass cough mixed with the setting of 5 almost did some serious damage. The coughing started and the shock wave that hit my feet damn near pulled them out from under me. I was lucky enough to catch myself on the kitchen counter or I would have gone down. Wow. That was not expected. Thats the point where I learned that any forced muscle use would amplify the shock. Coughing, sneezing, pissing and even a good old fart will make me feel the shocks and amplify them. Needless to say the unit got turned down and I went back to sleep. I am back at 2.8 on the scale and everything seems to be going ok. I once thought that this would cure every pain and make life donuts and puppy dogs. My hip is telling me otherwise. I can still feel it, though just not as bad. I had planned on going to Walmart today just to see how it handled walking the aisles. After last night, I am thinking maybe tomorrow will be a better day for this. I do think that if it eliminates the bedtime pain, it will be a success. Some nights are horrible. Even a double shot of codeine doesn't quite help. Originally I had hoped for no pain any more and I could go back to living a normal life. Not gonna happen. I can live with that though. Just losing the pain that comes at bedtime would be a huge win and one I could live with. So, what will tonight bring? I am sore where they cut me open to put the wires in, but its not that bad. I guess we'll all have to wait until tonight to find out.
Welcome to a blog that will not end tonight. I hope it doesn't end at all. I am going to be reviewing a medical device that is supposed to cut back severe back pain using electricity instead of my usual codeine. The stimulating machine is made by Medtronic. No, they are not paying me. I wish they would though. No one is telling me to do this but I feel the urge to help people suffering from pain.
I have had serious back issues since 2011. They would react to the cold in my job and give me hellacious headaches. It cost me my job. As the back pain worsened, more jobs were lost, including my dream job at Amazon. Nights were filled with pain so severe that my leg would move in the whole range of motion it has left, violently. By now, Codeine was all that would remotely help. It took enough of the edge off to allow me to sleep. My Dr, Dr Carlson recommended we look into spinal stimulation to ease the pain. So much is wrong in my spine that any sort of surgery to fix one thing would make another issue worse. After fighting the insurance company, they agreed to allow the trial run. In the trial, my stimulator is left on the outside of my body to see if it is worth a permanent try. So, the one above is the permanent one. If this works, it would be implanted under the skin.
New wires would be run to the spine and it would all be underground. Right now I am covered in tape on my back to keep it all attached to myself. It comes with a remote control that allows you to change the way it works. If an enemy got a hold of this, they could have fun. I am a remote controlled human. But I must say, the Rep turned it up to full power and it really felt cool. It's like a Tens Unit at the chiropractor but a hell of a lot more powerful, and fun! So, lets begin.
Day 1- The unit has been in myself 12 hours. My back is sore from where I was cut, but other than that its pain free. I walked the grocery store looking for ingredients for dinner tonight and the only thin I felt was the 2 discs that push on my spinal cord. Even that was really nothing. The big test came at bed time. When I lie down, all hell breaks loose from my hips to which ever leg it wants to torture. I feel a shock begin to charge and then it explodes down my leg causing me to kick violently. It fucking hurts. I made it to bed at 10:00 and laid there waiting. Nothing. My neuropathy pain was almost to "0" and nothing like it has been. Why I woke up at 2 I can't say, but its nice. There was no pain. Stay tuned for more.
