How is the long-term therapy different from the trial?

After your test drive, you and your Southwest pain specialist will decide whether spinal cord stimulation has helped relieve your chronic pain. If it has, long-term therapy may be right for you.

There will be  a waiting period before you are able to begin long-term therapy. This waiting period is important to give your body time to heal from the incisions made for the test drive. After the healing process (which can take from one to four months), you are ready to schedule the long term therapy procedure with your Southwest pain specialist.

Some people find the time between the end of their test drive and the beginning of their long-term therapy difficult. It may be challenging to cope with the sudden loss of therapy which helped control pain.

In preparation for long-term therapy, your leads will be implanted again, along with an implantable pulse generator (IPG) . This surgery is still considered minor surgery. The IPG will take over sending out pain-masking signals that were given by the the external trial stimulator (ETS) you used during the test drive. The IPG is smaller and lighter than the ETS, and it is easy to recharge.

As with the test drive, you will be awake so that your can give your pain specialist feedback. The location of the incision will be sore durign the healing process. Charging your IPG may be difficult during the healing process due to normal swelling after the surgery and the surgical dressing.

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