Well, today was the last day and not even a full one at that. I had my appointment at 11:45 am and they pulled my wires. I was expecting for an uncomfortable sensation or even a little discomfort, but I literally felt nothing. My Dr said “all right, that’s everything” and I turned a little to see both full wires in his hand. I was totally amazed that I didn’t even feel them move.
One of the reps that has been helping me was there as well and he and I got to talk a bit. I had kept a written journal for each day which I used to describe how the stim felt, what improvement, or lack of, I was experiencing, and also importantly which programs I was using and liking or disliking. I made a photocopy of that today, as I thought it might be interesting for them to see the trial from my eyes, and gave it to the rep. He felt that was very helpful as a lot of patients want to hear about the trials and stuff from another patient’s point of view, which I have no problem sharing mine obviously!
I was happy to be able to tell both my Dr. and the rep that I had been able to treat 2 migraines that had started during the week and abort 3 headaches from becoming migraines. Now, how do I tell the difference- to me, head pain is officially a migraine when I get the additional symptoms besides the pain. Like when the nausea, light sensitivity, sound sensitivity, etc start in. Otherwise, if its just pain in my head, its a simple headache. Although many, even most, of my simple headaches do turn into migraines within a few hours! The other nice benefit was after both of my migraines I was able to completely avoid the post-drome phase, or that period after your migraine where your head is sore and you feel very fatigued and even like you are in a fog. That didn’t happen once during this week. Overall, I had said I felt the stimulator gave me 70% relief this week and I only put it that low because I didn’t have full coverage of where my migraine sits and I feel that may have been a factor in the stim taking 6-7 hours to get rid of my migraine instead of like 2-3.
When we were discussing my experiences and everything, even my pain dr said that for the perm he is going to recommend either a longer lead or just driving this size lead an inch or so further towards my temple to try to get that last bit of coverage area. He was very happy it was as successful as it is and will be sending his procedure notes over to the neurosurgeon that I chose to work with. Even the Boston Scientific rep wanted to know when that appointment was, as they are going to try to have at least 1 of them at that appointment to help smooth the transition of care and also help in the discussion for the final decisions for my perm surgery. Hopefully as soon as the neurosurgeon’s office gets the procedure notes they will start the paperwork for my insurance approval of the perm. I’m hoping they aren’t going to wait until my appointment on April 22nd since we already lose a month by that point! Now that both trials are done and I know how well each segment worked, I can’t wait to get it all put together and I really don’t want anything to slow this down, especially something like paperwork that could easily be started prior to my next visit since I had already spoke with the surgeon once. I figure I’ll call next week and make sure they got my doctor’s notes and to also reassure myself that they are working on my authorization. I also know I can stay in touch with my Reps from Boston Scientific to help me keep this ball rolling!
Neurostimulator for Low Back Pain and Chronic Migraines 