Posted 7/19/2019 2:11 PM (GMT 0)
Susie,
Thank you for replying so quickly. I figured that was the case. I had mine removed and it was actually removed by my pain management physician. He only removed the pump itself. I began having horrific spinal headaches and the pouch where the pump was started filling with fluid. 2 weeks after the pump had been removed my pain mgmt Dr. told me I needed to have a plastic surgeon reconstruct the pouch area as it was not healing correctly, too much tissue damage, etc. I was in the hospital 5 days, left with a JP drain, it was due to come out post op appt in 7 days but kept filling with fluid every 90 min, the fluid was clear. I knew it had to be CSF fluid, post op got pushed back 3 wks in hopes the fluid would subside, it didn't. The plastic surgeon was livid, at that point we found out the catheter had been left in and was filling my abdominal cavity with CSF fluid. Following day appt with Neurosurgeon for surgery to remove catheter. He removed it, they sent me home. Issue was the area left in my spine was gaping and CSF just leaking like a facet, major spinal headaches, so pain management dr schedules torture event called blood patch, it was catastrophic failure. He had never had any procedure go so terribly wrong, his words. He was referring me back to the Neurosurgeon for more invasive spinal surgery. By this point the Neurosurgeon was not happy, he is not pleased to be fixing the pain doctors screw up. I have surgery, appears all is fixed, feel great so they bring me lunch to my room. My Mom reaches down while talking to me and grabs my leg, I see her do this and realize I know it's happening but can't feel it. We realize I have no feeling in my lower half, totally paralyzed. The Neurosurgeon decided to use this "blue cement" he hadn't used in years to expedite the process of closing up the gaping hole in my spinal column instead of taking the time of actually slowly suturing and protecting. It caused all the nerves to be totally crushed and I was rushed back for emergency surgery to have the "blue cement" scraped out of my spinal column and the surgery done correctly. I recently found out all the tubing was left inside the pouch area and removed as well during one of these operations. It was all coiled up inside the area just laying there. I couldn't believe it was left there since my body clearly rejected the foreign objects to begin with. I asked the question and share my experience to hopefully give others the information they need to ask the right questions prior to having their pumps removed.