First Dilaudid pain pump~have I lost my mind?

That sounds awful!...Sorry to hear that...

Are you able to keep any food down? I certainly hope you are staying hydrated with water, postassium, and a bit of salt...

And you are sleeping from what time do you go to bed? If it's in the evening...you are saying you sleep close to 24 hours?

This is emergent in that I would call the on call Dr. and even say you want to go to the ER...

You could be having too much medication getting into your system...Some fatigue is normal but a week of such extreme drowsiness and fatigue could be very serious...

Also..being dehydrated can be life threatening if you are not replenishing fluids...People can last without food for days...but not appropriate liquids..

That is why if it's as serious as you say...I would be going to the ER and letting them know...

Keep us posted..

Hi Bonnie, welcome to the chronic pain forum. I have a pump and when it was first implanted I did not have the problems you are experiencing at all. It sounds like you may not tolerate Dilaudid. I am assuming the dosage of Dilaudid is 5mg, which they do start you off at the lowest dosage and slowly titrate the dosage. Do you know what your flow rate is set at, meaning how much Dilaudid you receive an hour. They could have the flow rate set too high, and this could cause some of your problems especially if you are super sensitive to Dilaudid. I have a total of 4 different meds in my pump.

I urge you to call your dr first thing Monday morning or have someone take you to his office. I doubt going to an ER will be of any help to you because hospitals do not have the computer equipment needed to make any adjustments with your pump.

I can tell you first hand once they get your meds straightened out you will be a lot happier than you think. Please keep us posted on how you are doing and take care.

Bonnie

Welcome to Healing Well Chronic Pain Forum,  Usually when a person experiences nausea and vomiting from a pain med, it is usually caused from the dosage being to high, and often the body needs time to adjust to it. Often a doctor will lower the dosage to relieve the nausea and vomiting and then slowly increase the dosage over time, to the point that the patient has attained the desired pain relief. So I highly recommend that you talk with your doctor about this, as it is bad enough being in pain, and the feeling of nausea and vomiting does not need to be added to it! 

 

I am glad you found us and posted, I do hope you will continue to come to our forum and post and become an active member of our chronic pain family! I think or at least I hope that you will find this forum to be not only informative, but also a place where you can share your feelings about your chronic pain, and find people who can really empathize with you  and  give you caring and compassionate support!

 

 So again I welcome you to our chronic pain family!

 

White Beard

If you are new to Hydromorphone, which in my experience (I've been on pretty much everything there is on the market except for Demerol which I'm not a fan of, and have yet to try Buprenorphine though I may at some point) is one of the best pain meds out there overall despite its short half-life -- which is far less of an issue in a properly calibrated pump-based steady release system.....then it's likely that you are just adjusting to the difference in how the different pain meds bind to the same receptors.....you may actually be experiencing Fentanyl withdrawal, rather than a direct Hydromorphone side effect....even if the dosages are roughly equivalent or even a bit higher, because Fentanyl hits receptors in a way and with such a high "affinity"/potency that it tends not to be fully compensated before by most other opioids if you make an abrupt switch from one to the other.....

Regardless of the exact cause, I personally would counsel patience. It's probably a short-term effect of med switching/adjustment, and with a little dose adjustment (either up or down, more or less frequent dosing intervals, if that's an option....whichever ends up working best)....you should be feeling MUCH better than you are are now, without changing the medication or abandoning the pump.

Don't necessarily take my word for it, but that's what my personal experience and research would suggest. FWIW....