Spinal Cord Stimulators

"Situation normal.  No pain."

Ohhh, that is good to know.  Here in the brain, the central nervous system control center, we like getting messages like this.  We get all edgy and sensitized when we get too many messages about pain.  We also do many crazy things that this blog writer doesn't understand when we get constant messages about pain.  Chronic pain is a curse.

In a chronic pain situation, there is a clever way to send the brain a "situation normal" signal, one that overrides (or at least competes with) a pain signal.  It is called a spinal cord stimulator.

Nerves work via electrical signals.  The chronic pain generator sends out pain signals, and they travel back to the brain.  Somewhere between the generator and the brain, the doctor places a spinal cord stimulator. Think of it as a little radio transmitter competing with a broadcasting station.  Your pain generator is putting out pain signals, but this transmitter, on the same frequency, attenuates and interferes with those signals by putting out its own signals.  These signals get picked up by nearby nerves in the spinal cord and carried to the brain.  We want the brain to get a "situation normal" message instead of a pain signal.

There are three major parts of a spinal cord stimulation:
1) The "lead."  This is the antenna, if you will.  It puts out the electrical signals that compete with the pain signals.

2) The battery and control system.  The battery supplies energy, and the control system sends an exact sequence of electrical signals to the lead, to generate the desired stimulation.

3) User interface.  This is your control of the system.  It varies significantly from system to system.  But it is something you can hold and manipulate to control your stimulation.

Later I will do a post on the "reps," the representatives for these SCS companies.  I want to call it "SCS reps: the perfect people."  These people have a lot on the ball.  They have to have smart smarts and people skills.  They are present for the trial, work with doctors, field sometimes ridiculous requests from patients, etc. etc. etc.

There is a lot of excitement on the SCS (spinal cord stimulator) front these days.  The FDA has approved a few new technologies in the past year.  I have seen trials with three different systems, and that seems unique. Stay tuned for individual assessments.

In case you were wondering, we went with the St. Jude non-rechargeable battery system with burst technology.  It helps somewhat, but has not been the godsend we needed.

Social Asininity in the Medical Profession

I need to add a picture here.  And some day, it might happen.  But I just have to get this out of my system.

Generally speaking, the more training a medical professional has, the more asinine they become.  Pre-meds might be normal.  Medical students, less so.  Podiatrist, decent chance of a real conversation.  Family physician, still human.  Specialist?  You are walking a very fine line of humanity.  Plastic surgeon?  Leave your self-respect and expectations of civility in the waiting room. It's the only way you will have them when you leave the office.

The conundrum of the medical world... you can get a nice person who knows a little bit about a lot of things, or an unidentifiable otherworldly product of too-many-years-seeing-people-as-carrying-cases-for-their-specialty-body-part(s) who knows a lot about a little thing (and who does not know enough about anything else to refer you to a different specialist).  

I might have exaggerated something.

Might have.

Good luck, friends in pain -- may your path lead you to improvement.

BPPV

I forgot I had this blog until I googled into it by accident.  What a surprise.

Today I will pontificate upon BPPV.  Benign paroxysmal positional vertigo.  The name means that it's not going to directly kill you, but that the motion-induced dizziness will ruin your life until you get it under control.

This is just a satellite issue that has come up in our long medical journey.  Without warning, some days when my "patient" would turn his head or adjust his position in bed, his whole world would spin.  This is supposedly caused by little "crystals" shifting around irregularly in your inner ear canals.  This makes your brain think you are spinning.  

If you have this and desire to fix it, please get a trash can now.  With a liner.

The good news is that there are a few simple moves to fix this.  My favorite YouTube videos are by Peter Johns.  Search for Epley maneuver or BPPV.  You do this crazy hokey-pokey maneuver on the side of a bed, and if you have done it correctly, you sit up at the end, throw up into a waiting trash can in a last burst of nausea, and then go about your life... after being very careful not to tip your head for the next 24 to 48 hours.  

If YouTube doesn't cut it for you, try your friendly local ENT (ear-nose-throat) specialist or audiologist.  But please, call first.  Some of these people have no clue what they are doing with BPPV treatment.

Best wishes in walking a straight line.