Pain pump advise

My problem with CP stems from my back too, although I do have pain in other areas. The pump is designed to slowly drip the medical in the intrathecal space where the pain receptors are located in our backs and send the pain signal to the brain. Your back will be what your pump is actually going to relieve pain from. It will do little good for pain in other parts of your body. Such as if you get a migraine h/a your pump will not take care of it. My dr gives oral meds for BT pain and please be sure your dr does the same, along with a good muscle relaxer. Word of caution, there are many drs who believe BT meds are not needed with a pump and that my friend is pure BS. I rarely take oral pain meds because I wanted off that bandwagon of clock watching and rely on my pump 99.9 per cent of the time. Now, if I fall or something like that then I will take a pain pill. Most of my pain now can be managed with a muscle relaxer. You are not pain free with a pump, its just to help us get the pain down to a more tolerable level and get us functioning again. Believe it or not, you are on much less meds with a pump than what you take orally. Mainly because the pump meds are concentrated whereas pill form its not that way.  

I have a long history of migraines and passed them on to both of my children. My poor son has them really bad and has since he was 8 yrs old. He goes thru the projectile vomitting the whole bit. I have not had any spinal h/a associated with the pump placement at all. I read on here one lady's horrible experience with the trial and she is the first one I know of that had any problems, but I am not saying it can't happen either. I think alot of it goes back to the person's previous history on things like that. I am sure thats one of the possible side effects. But you keep in mind, when this stuff is still being tested before being out on the market, if one person complains of a h/a or whatever, the FDA forces the companies to list this as a potential side effect.

I can only tell you, I had reached the end of the road with oral pain meds and had only one good choice left and it was the pump. I do not regret making that choice either. It has given me much of my life back, something no pain pill could do for me. Oh, I have my goods & bad days, its not all roses, but, much, much better than what I had before, well worth it. It sounds like you are about at the end of the line too, so hopefully the pump will help you. I know many people w/constipation did better after the pump. I can drive my car, go to the grocery store, run errands, but I may space this out over a couple of days as to not wear myself out. Last night I did some shopping at Walmart in the toy depart and spent 2 hrs doing that, that was unheard of for me before. Today I will do some Christmas shopping as well for a couple of hours. I do walk with a cane and                                                                                                    whenever in a store I do use one of their carts, mainly so I have something good and stable to hold onto while walking. I also have a 3 yr old grandson that keeps his Granny very busy and I am able to play with him and enjoy things with him. He & I rode a train for an hour one day and I did fine. His Pawpaw dropped us at the train depot then drove to the next stop and picked us up. That little guy was walking on air.lol. He loves trains.

I have a slight bulge on the side where my pump is, but with a shirt hanging out no one has a clue I have pump in me. Over time you just get use to it and do not ralize you have one in. If you think of any other questions, please post and I will answer you if I can. Susie

Glad to be of help any time. OMG 1.2 mil for treatment & hospitalizations for migraines. Man you could have had a lobotomy cheaper than that,lol. WOW, still sitting here letting that one soak in.

I forgot to ask you, have you had the trial for the pump yet or is that in the works? When I had my trial, I truly thought I had died and gone to heaven, no pain, none, nada. But, when you have the pump put in you don't feel that way at all when you wake up, not even close to it. They will start you at a low dose in the pump and give you increases until you are at a level that both you and the dr agree on. Ask your dr if he/she give increases in the beginning every two weeks. My dr did and that way you are left hung out to dry if you are having a lot of pain. My dr normally increases the pump 20% on each visit, however, due to other health issues, he would only give me 10% increases. I was fast approaching a yr into my pump and really not doing that great and I finally told him on a visit that maybe I had made a mistake having the pump put in because I did feel my progress had been all that great. That was the magic words I guess, next thing I knew my pump is being increased 20% and every two weeks he increased it more. Once we got the doseage taken care of it made all the difference in the world.   

Please keeo posting and let us know how you are doing. Susie