pain pump

hello everyone. hope you all are doing as well as can be these days.. i haven't been on
in quite awhile so i thought i would stop by and say hello.
i also have a question and am hopeful i might find an answer.
not sure if anyone recalls but back in 2013ish, i had a medtronic pain pump inplanted
after around 8-9 years of chronic back pain.
since nov. of 2004 i injured my lower back at work and after countless mri's and ct's,
many sessions of physical therapy i had my first of four back surgeries.
aug. and oct 2005 two laminectomies respectively and 2007 and 2010 two fusions.
all of these were L-4/L-5-S1. well things were good for a couple years and then the pain
just kept getting worse and worse until i was recommended to see a pain management
specialist and the fact that i was a good candidate for the pain pump. ok i was game to try
it out so after a series of tests and talking to a psychiatrist about the mental part of having
a foreign object implanted in me. well i passed all the testing and was set for the operation. t
that went well and after about a month or so got the pump set at a great level. no pain and things were going
good for quite awhile. pain started slowly creepying back so i was put back on some oral meds again.
now i have morphine in the pump and i also take 30mg er morphine x's 2 daily plus percocet
10/325 x's 1daily so back to doing good without the pain.

now for the bad news, found out not long ago that my pain docs. will no longer accept my insurance
(medicare/medicaide) and i will have to pay 100% on the pump medicine. well cant afford that and my last appt. is this coming thursday. i called my surgeon today and made an appt. to see about having the
pump removed.
i'm sorry this is so long but i'm wondering if when the pump med runs out will i start having
withdrawals or would the oral meds help prevent that?? i'm alittle scared about not knowing
what lies in my near future and maybe somebody might be able to shed some light.

again sorry so long and look forward to hearing from ya. thank you in advance for any info.

mark....

good morning susie. thank you for responding. my wife also sees the same dr. for some pain issues and she has already had her last appt. about a week ago. my last appt. with oral meds is this thursday and about a week later i go in to have the pump refilled for the last time. we both received a letter from the clinic about what was going on, i just haven't been in since then being that my appts. were already made. every 3 months for the pain meds and around a month and a half or so for the pump. oh and yoou can bet your bottom dollar i will be talking when i go in.
well lets just add a little fuel to the fire. since i've been back here at the forum i've had troubles with my right foot to the point of having a fusion done last oct.2016 (failed) and a second one in febuary. 3 months of non-weight bearing on it so 2 months to go. that,knock on wood hasn't been giving me too much trouble so i'm thankful for that. it's just that it's always one thing or another. i'm sure we all know that story all too well. thanks for the medtronics website, i will look at that today. hope you have a great day and talk to ya soon.....mark

hi susie. thanks for getting back with me. sorry i didn't get back til now. been helping kelly out some(she is really being bothered with her back and shoulder pain also) had my appt. last thursday for a refill on my pain.
was talking to the nurse while i was there. turns out i need to see the pain doc. and not the pa's about wining
off the pump. imade an appt. with my surgeon but cancelled that because at this time there is nothing he could do now so it would have been a waste of both our times really. i have enough meds in the pump to last til june 28th so that should be enough time to weing off the pump (would ya think??) and also to see how my back would do with lower doses. so this could be beneficial. ya know give me the idea if i would still need the pump or if i could have it removed. ...

on another note when i was at the docs (pain) cheri is the pa and i talked to her about my pump and how it really worked for me. she mentioned to me about me of a patient who is thinking about getting the pain pump for his back troubles (pretty much the same i had/have) and if i would mind talking to him about the pump.
so i said i would and thought i might mention healingwell to him. would that be ok?

well i guess that's about all for ow. hope all is going good for ya today. talk to ya soon

mark

HI susie. ok i got the low down with my wife. she goes there also. i misunderstood what she said about the clinic. seems that they(clinic) doesn't accept medicaid anymore. kelly only has medicaid so her last appt.
has come and gone.
i have medicaid/medicare so i would still have insurance thru medicare, just not medicaid to back up whatever medicare doesn't cover. for that procedure (refill) would cost me $100.(each) i know it's only $100 but might just as well be $1000.

i'm sorry i didn't have the right info. as far as the weing off the pump medicine(morphine) i can go in on mondays without an appt. and he(the head doc.) can reduce the amount the the current dose is.

if i read the pump info sheet i get at the appt. right, it looks like 16.0 mg/mL then it reads 5.998 mg/mL day.

i wish i understood these numbers on this print out sheet i have.
oh, one other thing, kelly had made an appt. with a new pain doc. it's the meet and greet first appt. type of visit. yes we need to work on our communication...LOL

Hi Susie, well did See a new pain mang. Doc a week ago. It did say that he would be fine to see me about my pump. I did mention to him about wanting to wean off the disease and see I how I do as far as pain goes. Plus posibily getting off meds altogether. narcotics that is. I kinda feel overwhelmed about this but maybe I'm just more afraid of withdrawal symptoms. I understand their most unpleasant.