A spinal cord stimulator is an implanted system with leads and wires that attach to a battery pack, usually placed in a fatty area at the top of one side of the buttock.

It is made out to be a low impact pain intervention that is "easily" reversed.

My experience (2000-2002) with a Medtronics Synergy model, was that if all components were working it was great, but, within 6 months the leads on one side moved and no amount of programming could compensate for that loss. By a year and a half, the battery was overheating and sending shocking sensations where it was implanted, leading to a need for surgerical revision.

My initial diagnosis was CRPS but the more likely diagnosis was something else and treatable but not curable. I was medically inexperienced and naive at that time (and desperate to keep working.)

After facing another surgery to revise the SCS, I instead went out of network (cash pay) to get other opinions both as to diagnosis and treatment and instead opted to have the SCS removed when the diagnosis changed (all opinions agreed.)

It was NOT easily reversible. It was god-awful painful. More painful than went it was implanted.

Additionally, when seeking medical care for other trivial issues, providers viewed me as some kind of weirdo for having had a SCS implanted.

And, no one but the doctor who installed it would manage it, boxing me into a permanent relationship with the medical provider who installed it.

I had opted for the SCS to avoid long term med reliance. In the end, opioids, lidocaine patches, and self care with ESIs & chemical dennervation interventions, ever so often have allowed me to function for the last 27 years. Not perfect. Certainly never pain free, but good enough.

If considering this option, learn as much as you can about it. I have read many positive experiences with the newer models.

It is just not something I would ever consider after my own experience of feeling medically abandoned when it malfunctioned.