Does anybody ride with a NMD implant?

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Loopy Loo

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Does anybody (or know of anybody) who rides with a Spinal Cord Stimulator? Due to radial nerve damage in my arm following a couple of nasty riding accidents I've been recommended to have a Spinal Cord Stimulator implanted.
I have very mixed feelings; It should enable me to come off the cocktail of drugs I take to control the nerve pain (It won’t stop the pain but change the sensation) BUT and this is the big but, the consultant at St Thomas in London has recommended I stop riding once the device is implanted because of the risks of the wires moving if I should fall, whilst the Neurosurgeon at my local hospital says that as long as I’m sensible I should be fine. There must be other people out there riding with a SCS what are your experiences good & bad?
 
That's quite alot you have to think about! Do you have a horse of your own? What's it like to ride....my friend rode until she was 8 months preggers on her girl as she is so dependable.....obviously different situation but she always felt safe.

Can't offer any advice but hope it works out x
 
sorry cant offer any advice, but please keep me updated! My friend is currently under going nerve blocking in her leg and has something like that mentioned. She has been on morphine patches that didnt work so nerve block is next!
Good Luck
 


Nothing useful to say but I wish you all the best, what a horrible situation to be in
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No views on this but what an interesting concept! Works like TENS I suppose, but for different nerve groups. I damaged my neck quite seriously a few years back resulting in massive nerve pain down through my arm and wrist. Fortunately (maybe) for me he damage was such that I have actually lost most of the sensation down my arm and hand. In fact I dread the pain ever coming back so am quite happy with the situation as it stands.

My consultant is quite happy for me to continue riding 'safe' horses, and avoid jumping and fast work or the more risky side of riding - perhaps it is just as well he doesn't know I got chucked off a youngster and broke my hip a while back!
 
I’ve had the nerve blocks; it just made the situation much worse - A big fat purple arm!! I know that they are very effective for some people.
A Spinal Cord Implant is a bit like an internal Tens machine, but has a slightly different sensation (or so I'm told!!)
I do have 3 horses of my own - 1 retired, a driving pony and an Andalusian mare. The 2 in work are real characters and by no means quiet! I'm riding/driving now (though it does get frustrating when I can't maintain a grip on the reins) to have the op and give up the horses would be very very difficult, but the side effects of the drugs I take aren't nice. There are so many pros and cons it might help to find somebody in a similar situation. I know of people who having had the implant are back running marathons, but not found anybody riding.
 
I came across articles on this when researching Hippotherapy for my dissertation ... go to google scholar (better than ordinary google
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) and type in Spinal Cord Stimulator/ horse riding or even try hippotherapy .. it is surprising what comes up, I'm not sure of the quality or how useful the articles will be as I didn't read those ones
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