I've been experiencing significant back and leg pain for some time.  The last time at the pain clinic the shots didn't work.  The doctor offered to try another shot but with the failure of the previous ones I declined.

I don't take pain killers for a variety of reasons.  NSAIDS are bad for your heart and interfere with my digestive tract.  Acetaminophen works for headaches but doesn't work for me on muscles.  Oxycontin makes you sleepy, messes up your intestines and based on reports I've seen it loses effectiveness leading people to use more and become addicted. No thank you.

So, I wondered about TENS machines.  I haven't read anything regarding significant adverse effects and there appears to be a consumer level machine available from multiple sources on Amazon.  But, I also noticed that there are other machines costing about 8X as much and are supposedly for "professionals".  Which leads me to wonder if the $50 ones are just toys to tickle you with mild trickles of electricity but actually do nothing.

Thank you for any constructive input.