Pleasure but at a price (TENS Pain Relief Unit)

Member Name: David J. Rogers

Product:	TENS Pain Relief Unit
Date:	23/01/02 (2462 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Easy to use, Easy to get, Works well

Disadvantages: Can be expensive for some., Can hide something serious, ..

I felt it may be of use to move this opinion up so that those that did not read it first time round can do so now.

Following surgery to replace my implanted system, because the batteries had died, I was reminded of just how much benefit can be gained by the correct use of this equipment.

My new implanted system failed to activate and so I am now waiting for another operation to replace it again. I have, in the meantime, had to rely on the TENS unit to help ease some of the pain. My feelings about the unit have not changed but I have been reminded that the TENS can help.

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I have a chronic back injury, it is both degenerative and very painful. I first tried the TENS unit some 12yrs ago and found it did ease the pain some.


My biggest fear, with this form of self help therapy, is that it is very easy to buy and may, in some cases, hide a serious injury that should get medical help. I go to the pain management clinic at St Thomas' in London several times a year, as well as stays during treatment, and have met hundreds of people with pain, and the same number that have used a TENS machine. Many found that the pleasant, tingly effect of the TENS helped allow them to live a much better quality of life, and that has to be great. Unfortunately there are some that were recommended, by friends, to try this before they saw a doctor.. and now suffer life long problems because they didn't get treatment early enough.

The TENS unit is designed to work in 2 ways, both that respond to the electronic impulses the machine gives out.

Firstly this can relax a muscle that has gone into spasm, and boy thats painful enough on its own. Of course the muscle has gone into spasm for a reason, that being to protect a part of your body that is either under stress or damaged. This is why I say a doctor should be seen.

Secondly, the electronic pulses can, and often do, affec
t the pain messages being sent to the brain, from the nerve endings around the area in trauma, it weakens them. Again this is a great thing and makes life a lot easier to cope with but, as with the first effect, it can cover up a major problem. Pain is your bodies way of telling you something is wrong.

Many doctors will suggest, even loan, a TENS unit to their patients, there is nothing wrong with the method, but, I say again, let your doctor decide for you. As for its use during delivery of a baby?? I have to admit I have no experience here.. thank goodness!! but, a tip for you mums to be, save a few quid and ask the hospital if they have a unit you can borrow?? Many, indeed most, hospitals have a clinic for pain sufferers and they hold these units for temporary loan.... The cost of a TENS unit varies a lot, anything from £5 up to £100 plus the cost of batteries.

I now have an implanted device, it is known as a spinal cord stimulator, a very much advanced, more expensive form of the TENS. (Like £16.000 +) It works pretty much the same way but is completely implanted inside my body, a control box in my stomach, leads that run round to my spine, and a rod of electrodes inside the spine, next to the spinal cord. It reduces my pain, in the lower half of my body, by about 60%, a fantastic thing as anyone with pain will know. As I say my injury is serious but the new technology is not really much different, just more advanced, and the battery lasts for around 5 years. If your pain is from muscle strain, for example, TENS may well give you the same level of relief.

My final point is, to repeat yet again, please do seek medical advice if you suffer pain, certainly if that pain is such that you are considering a TENS.... remember your doctor may indeed agree and say that this is the right way forward... but always check first.

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