Interstim therapy

[La-La]

I had the second, newer intersim unit from Medtronic implanted in January. So far, as with the older unit it replaced, I'm not having much success with it.
Are there any forum members who have one of these implanted? How long did it take to find a working setting, if you've had success? The visits to my urologist just has him reset the unit with no better results, and on my fixed income, I can't afford frequent trips to his office. Any info would be helpful.

La-La

[ayelean]

I have an Interstim system but will probably have to lose it. I am much improved with it but I still have a lot of symptoms. I think people forget just how bad they were without it. I have my favorite settings but after a while I think my body adjusts to the stimulation and it works less. Then I change the stimulation either increase the amps or change the position on the leads. I am always happy to go back to the favorite one, which happens to be 2 on my unit. With the unit, I only go maybe once a night. I can get to a toilet during the day but just barely, still with a lot of 'urge' maybe 6 times a day. Without the device I was going 4-5 times a night and every thirty minutes or so during the day, and often having accidents.

I have a lot of chronic neurogenic problems with my back and painful knees so it is with a lot of pain to get up and go to the toilet all the time. I think the unit does help a lot.

The day my unit was put in, I had less than good care in the recovery room and no one checked my incision before I went home. The next day my husband and I realized my incision was wide open! I developed a raging abscess with at least 6 oz of purulent material flowing from the site. I have been on several series of antibiotics which quell the infection but it keeps abscessing. This has happened 4 times. My practicioner is not easy to deal with and for some reason she wants to ignore that I have this ongoing problem. I am on a maintenence antibiotic that she acts like she is prescribing because I insist on it but she doesn't think I need. If and when I stop this antibiotic I know for sure it will abscess again. I am dreading when the day comes. When I ask if she wants to remove it when I am still on antibiotics or wait untill I am off of them and have an abscess, she reorders the maintenence antibiotic!

I've never seen a forum like this where all the threads are only one entry long!!!

[geraldFjord]

A newly released study sheds some light on the effectiveness of Interstim implants. Hope this helps.

March issue of the Annals of Surgery:
"At 12 months of follow-up, 83 percent of patients experienced therapeutic success, defined as a greater than 50 percent reduction in the number of fecal incontinent episodes per week." An hsa or other strong coverage may fund these operations. "Furthermore, perfect continence (100 percent improvement) was achieved in approximately 40 percent of the patients. Improvement remained stable over time, with 87 percent therapeutic success rate in patients who had passed three years of therapy (n=30 patients who had completed the diary requirements in the study)."

Here is the story

maybe give the implant some time, or try to find more information in the Annals of Surgery

[J.Soria]

InterStim therapy is used to treat overactive bladder, urinary retention, faecal incontinence and constipation.