New Pain Pump and Itchy

Hello & welcome to the forum. So sorry to read you are being bothered with the itching. To be honest, the only thing I can think of is perhaps its the combo of both causing your itching. I would try to reduce my intake of IR's & see what happens. Itching is something we see from time to time with an increase in a dose on oral meds. I am guessing once you are completely off of the orals meds this should stop.

Is there a reason your dr is not letting you use a PTM & give yourself a bolus instead of taking oral BT meds? That would eliminate the IR meds if he would do this. This mat be something you want to talk to him about. He can program the PTM to however many he wants you to have per day.

If the itching becomes too much I would call his office first thing Monday & talk to someone in the office about this.

Take care.

Are you absolutely sure MS was the only thing added? Its pretty standard for another med to be used in the pump such as a muscle relaxer, robaxin more commonly.

Medtronic pumps are designed with a patient controlled line and set up to a rate of maximum allowable of meds you dispense yourself from the pump. Its the equivalent of using IR meds with a base med such as your doing orally.

Either way if the itching gets too bad I would definitely call the medtronic tech support and go to the ER as they have ways to contact your Dr that you don't.

dianne, the PTM is spoke about is a little device that comes with the Medtronics pumps & the dr programs it so that you can give yourself x amount of bolus per day. The bolus takes place of the IR's you take daily. These are great little devices & you need to ask where yours is at as it should have been in the box with your pump. You place the PTM over your pump & it activates the bolus. The dr has to program how many you can have per day & you cannot give yourself one & do it again in 30 minutes. They are spaced so many hours apart. I am guessing before surgery you never visited Medtronics website & read about pumps & all. You may still want to go there & check it out.

Your dr should have discussed with you prior to surgery what medication he would be putting in the pump. They can & do put Morphine only in pumps. The reason for only one medication is if a patient has a reaction it is easy to determine what is causing the reaction. If the patient has multiple medications in the pump & had a reaction it would be very difficult trying to figure out which one is causing the problem.

You may want to check with the drs office on Monday to verify what was put in the pump. Don't give up on the pump yet you are just starting out. Take care.

Glad to hear the itching went away on its own. I hope that your dr can get your dose to the where you don't need any meds for break through pain but that is a rare instance. Your insurance paid for your PTM & it belongs to you so you need to get that from your dr. He cannot keep it there in his office. Just so you know, if you did not have a PTM & decided a year down the road you needed one your insurance would not pay for it. The only time insurance pays for the PTM is when the pump is implanted. A few years ago the PTM's were $1,000 & that is an out of pocket expense the patient must pay. There is no telling what they cost now.

Take care.

Hi Dianne-

I'm two and a half weeks from my pump implantation surgery. I didn't get my PTM until my follow up appt. it's very handy to have and it works like break through medication.

I hope you receive yours and I'm glad the itching stopped!

Catwoman, you are right, after I took the benadryl I was fine the next day and when they upped my dosage on Wednesday for the 2nd time I had no itching, so I guess it was like you say it was the different route al biet the same medication. Good luck with your pump, I imagine you are still going through the surgical discomfort but mine didn't last too long, two weeks later and I barely feel it and forget the pump is even there. After this second uppage (I don't know how you guys refer to it) Im able to cut way back on my oral meds, I know this is the goal. I have three appts each Wednesday where I'll get an increase and they will lower my orals one by one until I'm completely on the pump. For the lovely folks who have been answering my posts, i spoke with them on Wednesday and I will get my PTM either the next visit or the one after that, I think they must be worried I might overdose myself as long as Im still on so many orals. I'm so very glad I did this, waking up this morning and able to get out of bed without practically crawling is a miracle where I used to have a pill by my bedside. I know it's only going to get easier as they increase me. They are taking it slow in order to wean me off the orals as I've been on them more than a year and was taking quite a few a day. I have a hard time tho not lifting things, i.e., carrying groceries, flower pots in my yard, and etc. I'm not used to waiting around for help and asking my husband although he would no problem, then i wear myself out and worry that I might have done damage as I do too much too soon. Does anyone else have that problem ? I am usually very active and can't wait to get back to my water aerobics and playing golf.

Yes I can tell by reading the posts that the dr decides how often and how much a patient gets with the PTM. Hoping that they can get me to the level I was before I got the pump because the dosage I was getting was really keeping me comfortable. i took a walk on the beach this morning and not only am I out of shape from laying around the last couple weeks, it was very painful walking up and down the stairs and walking in the sand. Before it would haven't been a problem and I would have been able to walk a lot faster and a lot further.

I guess because I was taking too much morphine, which I know wasn't being good to my body. I had been on them quite awhile, two years or so. I was taking three 30mg and two 15 IR a day. I go to a pain clinic although the dr there who did my surgery is very well known and they have helped me. I live in Florida and they are very strict about pills, etc. they told me we had to come to a resolution at some point and wanted me to either do this or have the surgery. I'm 68 and didn't feel like I wanted to do surgery, maybe 15 or 20 years ago, but not now. I don't know their reasoning for not letting me stay on the morphine for the rest of my life, it took a long time for me to come to this decision. I met a lady who goes where I go and she is very happy with her pump and very active so I decided as long as I can do the things I love to do, i.e., water aerobics, golf, garden, then why not ? I'm just two weeks in to this, and right now they are weaning me from the pills and I get my third dosage increase today, I think I get one or two more after that or maybe if I'm not comfortable they will up me more ? All I know is they promised I'd have the same relief I would have before. I'm only having trouble right now because we're not there yet and I am not used to being back in pain again after the last few years and not taking to it well and the fact that I can't be active yet. My back just won't let me yet. I must admit the back pain isn't constant now but it is severe when it hits like if I unload the dishwasher, try to take a walk, etc.

Until I was on morphine I wasn't getting much relief from orals and had built a tolerance to them, and oxy and that class of drugs was tearing up my stomache

Post Edited (dianneB) : 8/5/2015 5:42:25 AM (GMT-6)

Exactly, I was going to say that in my post that I live in Florida but then figured I'd have to explain how hard it is to get meds, it is also one of the reasons I opted for the pump, theres only two places i could get them filled and both (including Walgreens) gave me such a horrible time. I hated refill day and dreaded going to get them filled. A state full of old people and they can't even get a vicodan. Yes, I think I'm going to start a new post as I have a question I think after today's increase I think I feel a little too good, I haven't needed a pill at all since i got home, but that gets me thinking I haven't been the best patient and have done somethings I was told not too, like carrying in groceries, lifting a flower pot, hands over my head. How do you know if you've messed with the tube? I'm a bit jittery tonight but i think it's because she gave me a larger increase than normal. I'm going to ask this in a new post.