Kesler, INTERSTIM IMPLANT

[Guest guest]

, I am having trouble getting my insurance to approve the

trial. They said that " Vulvar Vestibulitis and Vulvodynia " is not

classified as " severe neuropathic pain " as a diagnosis.

Can I ask you a few questions?

- Where do you live?

- What kind of insurance do you have?

- Was it investigational? Were you part of a trial of some kind?

- What diagnosis did your physician give the insurance that caused the

insurance to agree to pay for it. I think my problem may be the wrong

" diagnosis " .

- How much would it cost if you paid for it yourself?

- Who is your doctor? Maybe I can travel to your doctor to get it done.

Thank you.

>

> - my guess is that you're referring to an Interstim implant. I had

> one of those and it was remarkable. It really worked well.

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> The procedure is a two step procedure - or at least it used to be. The

> first surgery is a minor surgery where the surgeon inserts a tens unit

> into the same area where the interstim would go. You get to spend

> several days with the Tens unit. You adjust the strength of the pulses,

> etc. If you experience a bit of improvement, chances are good that the

> interstim would work for you and if you so choose, you move onto the

> second stage.

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> The second stage is the actual surgery to insert the interstim. You're

> awake the entire time - but with plenty of anesthetic so that it doesn't

> hurt. But you need to be awake so that you work with the surgery team on

> the placement of the leads - what feels right, what doesn't etc.

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>

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> The control unit is put into your butt and you control the settings with

> an external device that you put over the control unit on your rear-end.

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> Basically, the interstim unit generates regular small electric pulses

> that forces the pudendal nerve onto a regular cycle. You feel the

> electric charges as small pulses in the genital area. I know it sounds

> very odd but you soon become unaware of the pulses.

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> In a period of six weeks, I was able to completely go off of medication.

> The device really worked fabulously well for me.

>