Posted 6/26/2016 6:55 PM (GMT 0)
Mary, I totally understand your hesitation of a pump after reading what your friend went through. You mentioned the dr saying she had maxed out her Morphine dosage, more than likely she did not max it out according to pump recommendations. Quite often drs will tell pump patients they have maxed out their dose when all it is the dr is not comfortable increasing the dose any further. This is where lack of knowledge comes into play & a dr lacking the expertise needed to handle a pump patient. This very thing happened to me with my first pump. My dr was out of his league completely when it came to pumps. He eventually stopped practicing pain mgt & referred all of his pump patients out to another dr. Boy, what a blessing that was for 45 of us with pumps. The referring dr had over a decade of experience with pumps, knew medications as well as any pharmacist, She was shocked that I was on such a low dose, in fact she said the dose I was is where she usually started a pump patient. Its like she said he meant well he just didn't have the experience. A pain pump is only as good as the dr managing it.
Take care.