About Me

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I am a 24 year old woman who has been battling chronic back and neck pain for the past six years. I am writing this blog to help others and to educate others about Peripheral Nerve Field Stimulation (PNFS) which is a new application for Neuromodulation technology that treats pain. My trial PNFS implant is scheduled for Monday, July 6th, 2009 and the final surgery is scheduled for Tuesday, July 21st, 2009. I will be documenting my journey through the process. _____________________________________

Monday, September 28, 2009

Recovery ... Still

So I know it has been forever since I have written.... which kinda defeats my whole purpose of writing this blog. But I have never been so exhausted. I guess it is part of this whole recovery thing. I guess I feel a bit guilty, like I should already be back on track, but I honestly am not. I am still in a decent amount of pain. It is different than my normal pain, more like a soreness that cannot be relieved. I try to put on my game face for my new job, and then try to keep some sort of normalcy at home for my fiance who has been my rock through it all. But all I really want to do is rest.

I had my last Doctors appointment about a week and a half ago and I wish it went better. All my incisions are healing fine, but I am still not getting maximum relief. My rep tried to reprogram me for almost two hours but we still could not get good stimulation on my upper left. It was pretty obvious that she had somewhere else to be and could not work with me any longer. She said that I would just need to keep meeting with her to work on the left side and hopefully we would get better results as time passed. It is disheartening, but I am doing my part. All I know is that in my heart I have put forth my best effort and I will keep trying. Thankfully, no more surgery is needed and I am no longer spasming. I knew when I got into this that it was not a fix all. Just something to help me get by, so I try to keep that in mind.

My scars are much worse now since they had to reopen all but one. I will post pictures this week of what they are looking like now. It is kind of depressing to see the thick red lines that mar my back, but it is part of my struggle, so they are part of me. I am happy to report that I bought my wedding dress. I will not be ashamed of my scars and I will not hide them. They are part of my story ... I only hope that with time I can shed the pain that has brought me so many scars. I have hope and determination that with time it will all fade. I want to thank all of you who have supported me through this rough time in my life. I really appreciate it.

2 comments:

  1. Feeling any better now? Had any more luck with reprogramming? I was sad to hear your revision surgery was so bad, but hopefully you've healed a bit and are getting more relief by now.

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  2. Hi, I am considering a pnfs and just wanted to see how you were doing now that you are a year and a half out? Mine pain is from a spacer from a bad fusion pressing on nerves in my spine. I hae ran out of options other than pain meds. I tried the spinal stem but did not help. I am really nervous and just really tired of being poked and prodded.. I had 3 back surgeries in 8 months and I refuse a morphine pump. Thank you for any update you can offer. I hope you are having a successful recovery!

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