You had a helpful Neurologist.

FWIW, Always ask how long the device is effective at managing pain. Always ask what is the rate of failure. Always ask if the hardware will remain implanted after device no longer works. Always ask what is the timing and rate of surgical intervention to remove the device or parts.

I have seen good success with some people for 3 to 7 years. Others had become worse, but, the advancing disease may have been the underlying cause. If you need to gamble on some years being more manageable to enjoy or complete life's tasks, then it might be a good choice. Always ask what is the success and failure rates of the surgeon before agreeing to the procedure.

I have had cervical ablations for pain my pain management. The office has spinal and muscle therapy nurse practitioners. But the Dr does does the cervical and lumbar facet steroid injections. The ablations works to kill the nerve but the nerves grow back every 2 years so I have had relief up to that time. Steroid injections I don’t like they can cause many other problems but it does take down the swelling of the herniated disk and swelling. I try to get this done as little as possible. But when all I can do is lay down or sit straight up without pain it is time to do something. It works for me but I would not do the stimulators either.

@A MySpondylitisTeam Member. He said it is extremely hard to get the spinal cord stimulant probe in the right location. So the failure rate will be high for a large percentage of patients. But if placed properly, yes they do work. The technology has not advanced well enough for a guarantee of proper placement and many doctors will not remove them. So it’s gonna be a a crap shoot dice roll of odds for a lot of people. So you are right. Ask a lot of questions and if they will remove it if it doesn’t work. I don’t need one presently. We were just talking about pain management clinics, He said my pain clinic wasn’t a real pain clinic but just a pill clinic and spine surgery only. He said the other type of pain clinic dealt with spinal cord stimulators and such as that. It doesn’t looks like pain relief for the spine hasn’t advanced much.

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Thank you for sharing this information, very helpful.

@A MySpondylitisTeam Member @A MySpondylitisTeam Member - thank you for the info - as usual 🙌🏾

When asking about success/ failure rate with any procedure or surgery, I always get the standard response of “every person is different”. I’m starting to believe that doctors are trained for standard responses in medical school like this to avoid lawsuits 😏

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