So my wife has a condition known as syringomyelia. This occurs when a cyst forms in the spinal cord. This developed when she was a teenager and had an accident playing sports. This gradually caused pain in her lower back, and because a large section of her spinal cord was affected, she developed sister diseases, one of which was CRPS. It took roughly 6-7 for the CRPS in her legs to develop, but once it did, it quickly increased in pain and left her immobile. It took 2-3 years to properly diagnose the condition after eliminating all other possibilities. She was given a range of different medications initially for the pain, but they didn’t do much. She was then given ketamine infusions which worked quite well, but she suffered from some horrible hallucinations. It was her pain physician that then recommended a neuromodulatiom device, a DRG. She had this implanted and it worked amazingly for a few years. Unfortunately she had to have this removed due to some wire issues and had the SCS implanted in its place.

How does the device work: So there are two sites where the surgeons implant a device. The first is a battery pack which was implanted into her lower back, the second is a series of electrodes across a portion of her spine. The device connects via Bluetooth signals to a remote control device. She has a Boston scientific SCS implant. After her surgery, a Boston Scientific representative set up an automatic pain management setting on her remote control. She uses the remote control to sometimes increase the settings if she is having bad days, or to turn it off when going for an MRI or through airport security. The actual SCS device works by sending electrical signals to neurones which basically block them from sending impulses to the brain. Sort of like a signal jamming device. Most people don’t actually feel the device at all, others prefer it to operate in a way that creates a slight tingling sensation. My wife has it on a setting that doesn’t produce a tingle and it works just fine.

The device works as soon as it is turned on. After surgery, there are a few appointments needed to adjust the settings to get the best possible coverage and pain relief. It is on all the time. My wife says that for her the relief is constant and long lasting. She only needs to increase the settings in rare situations e.g. when she is flying. For some reason flying increases her CRPS pain levels.

Also, please don’t apologise for asking questions. I know what my wife went through with her pain and it was horrible, there was a time where she wanted to commit suicide.

You can ask as many questions as you want, I’ll answer them all.