Interstim failed due to fall

[Cath5]

I was implanted sept 2005 and fell down the stairs oct 05. The stimulator stopped working within a couple days, I lost the sensation on one side. I have had lots of reprogramming, c-mapping, and still no results.

Has anyone had a fall or other problem cause the unit to fail, and did you manage to get it going again?

thank you so much for your help, I am in extreme pain and frequency, on lots of meds, very tired of the struggle and would really appreciate some hope for the future.

cath

[tigger_gal]

have they offered to remove it or replace it.. it if is causing you any pain please go back to your doc,have xrays done and thenmake plabs for repair or removal,

[patricia1]

I did not fall, but had a car accident (actually 2 rear end wrecks in one day). Shortly thereafter mine started not working right. Long story, but after countless reprogrammings and stuff I had to have a revision and re-implant of a new one. My leads moved. If you leads move any even 1/4" it can cause the unit not to work right and unfort the only thing that is going to fix this is revision surgery. You need to talk to your doctor about this. What you are experiencing is not normal. Have you had a x-ray of the unit?

[dancemomof2]

Wishing you better luck.

[Cath5]

Thanks for your responses! My doctor says its confusing as the wires don't look like they have moved at all on xray, and they aren't broken on the xray. My husband thinks I may have damaged either the implant or the connector points because I landed right on the unit on 8 stairs (fell on my back right on the unit). The doctor did catheder mapping where they run computer generated settings into the leads to see if any of them register any stimulation in the bladder and 3 settings did, we have tried 2 of them and it didn't work at all. The doctor is going to try the third setting and then if it doesn't work she said she will have to take me to the OR to see if changing the connectors or trying a new unit gets it started. If that doesn't work she thinks she will have to pull the leads out on the right side, let it heal for 2-3 months and then I would have to go thru a trial and it would have to work before she would re-implant. She said that the chance of the re-implant of the leads working is lower because of the scar tissue caused by pulling the leads out.

I was basically at the end of my rope when I was implanted and it was working really really well, so I am actually very depressed these days. I am hoping that when we go to the OR in the next couple of months that changing the connectors makes it start working.

Patricia - is what I described above what you went through for your revision and is it working?

Cath

[emilyrose197377]

I wish you luck . I hope they can figure what is going on and fix your interstim.

[patricia1]

Actually like you when they finally did my x-ray's mine did not show a whole lot either then, but when they went in to do the revision it was alot worse than what they figured and my surgery took about a hour longer. Before my revision we did alot of refiguring and re-trying to see if any would work, but for me they continued to cause the problems I was having. Also I had lost a ton of weight and the actual unit stuck out of my waist and would get caught on stuff and very uncomfortable when I wore blue jeans. For me the revision surgery was 10x worse than the first go around. One because of scar tissue, 2 because of the way the old leads were attached. I got my first one in 2001 and the revision done in May 2005. So instead of 2 incison's I had 3. Not to disappoint you with the revision, but mine is not working right still. Instead of going through with the trial again, we went straight to implant, which if you have to go through the reivison I highly suggest going through the trial again. For me now out of the 4 leads I have only 2 work. The 2 located higher up do not work right only the 2 that are the deepest. I hope things will straighten out, but if not we are here for you. I know how frustrating this is. I went for about 15 months with a defected unit. The first 8 months was trying to find someone to help me, because I lost my health insurance and no one would touch me. Thank god we have a charity hospital here and they finally got the right doc in there. Then the next months were spent trying to correct the problem without surgery. During this time I kept my unit off for fear of causing more troubles. :grouphug:

[Cath5]

Thank you to everyone. Patricia, I actually am quite encouraged by your story, perhaps we can get this thing working again. I really think that when the surgeon opens it up there will be something there to explain what is going on, how long did it take to recover from the revision surgery and do you think it would have been easier with the newer leads like the ones they implanted in 2005?
Cath

[patricia1]

It took me a good month to fully get over everything. I think this is because I ended up with a deep tissue infection after the revision surgery. I am not sure if it would have been easier with the new leads or not, but my uro stated it would have been. I also had about 4 yrs worth of scar tissue built up also. The morning after surgery I could hardly move anything on my body. I had a script for Lortab 10's but had to call in for Tylox because I hurt so bad...So I dont know, but wanted you to know because I went in and was blindsided. I thought it would be like the first go around.