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.