Your spinal cord has numerous nerves that enable the sending of electrical nerve signals from the brain to the rest of your body and the rest of the body to the brain. It also coordinates reflexes. However, if the spinal cord has an injury or damage, it disrupts the coordination of reflexes and the transmission of electrical signals throughout the body. In that case, William L Yancey MD may recommend spinal cord stimulation. Spinal cord stimulation can help reverse the deficits you experience in your movements, sensations, and autonomic regulations and put you at less risk of death.
Below are a few things you can expect before, during, and after spinal cord stimulation.
Preparation for spinal cord stimulation
After undergoing a spinal cord stimulation, there is a high chance that for the next 24 hours, you will not be capable of driving or operating a machine.
Therefore, you will need someone to drive you home after the procedure.
Your doctor may also require you to limit your food and drink intake a few hours before the procedure. You may only use little water for taking medications before your treatment begins.
Also, you may have to temporarily stop using certain medications, such as antiplatelet drugs or blood thinners.
It is the task of your health provider to ensure you are the right candidate for spinal cord stimulation.
For instance, you should not have a mental illness that can decrease the efficacy of spinal cord stimulation.
Additionally, you may need spinal cord stimulation once conservative treatments prove ineffective in relieving pain and discomfort satisfactorily.
During spinal cord stimulation
Before the actual or permanent procedure, your doctor must implant you with a trial spinal cord stimulation device. The trial period for the treatment may last a week or a few days.
If you are comfortable with the tingling sensation from the treatment and satisfied with the level of pain reduction, you will then proceed to the actual procedure.
Your spinal cord stimulation expert will adequately prepare you to understand what occurs during the actual procedure, including the necessary preparation.
The doctor will numb the area adjacent to your spinal cord and then make small incisions to insert insulated wires (leads) and a tiny stimulation device underneath your skin. The spinal cord stimulation device is often placed in the abdominal region or buttocks.
Usually, the spinal cord stimulator is difficult to see underneath your skin and can stay there for months or years.
Conditions that spinal cord stimulation can fix
As the implanted device underneath your skin subjects your spinal cord to controlled and safe levels of electrical stimulation, you can experience a significant decrease in your pain.
Spinal cord stimulation can help relieve chronic pain from surgery or failed back surgery syndrome. The procedure is also excellent for relieving pain from an injured spinal cord, amputation, or peripheral artery disease.
Because of the elimination or satisfactory reduction in the pain you experience, spinal cord stimulation can make you less reliant on pain relief medications and improve the quality of your sleep and general life.
Contact William L Yancey MD, today to schedule an appointment with a specialist in spinal cord stimulation.