pain pump thoracic spine

I just saw the post re: pump for cervical spine but figured I'd start a new thread with my question re: thoracic. Dr today recommended it and I read up on Medtronics and watched their video. I have tried most meds and am currently on Butrans 15 mcg. It is helping some but I am not where I want to be. We tried upping it to 20 a few weeks ago but I was super groggy. However, I had had to lower it to 10 right before then for some other testing that would be affected by the Butrans so in reality i went from 10-20 so that may have been too big a jump. I am going to try upping the Butrans back to 20 here again soon but in the meantime would love to hear from some people who have the pump for thoracic pain. Dr wants to do the in hospital trial where they implant the temporary leads rather than the single injection. That makes me feel better as I imagine it better mimics the real thing. It seems extreme but at the same time I don't have any new options really. Dr also wants to try Clonidine - anyone use that? I've had no luck with gabapentin, lyrica, methadone, vicodin, opana, percocet, fentanyl patches and many others. Suboxone helped a lot but made me very groggy so we switched to the butrans which doesn't help as much but at least I can function! Dr said that Suboxone generally helps more with neuropathic pain. Anyway, mostly, has anyone had any complications with the procedure? Major concerns or warnings?

I had never heard of clonidine for pain either. My son takes it for anxiety and it is indicated for blood pressure. I know suboxone and butrans are the same - suboxone made me too groggy. It helped a lot but I could not handle the grogginess. The butrans does not help that much as I do not think it is strong enough but when I tried to go up on it I was groggy like with the suboxone.
he would be putting morphine or dilaudid in the pump.
hopefully that clears some things up for you!

HI KEI_18:

I have an intrathecal pain pump with Dilaudid in it. My PM doc decided during my last visit to add Clonidine to my pump. She kept the Dilaudid at the same level. So far, it has helped my pain a great deal but my feet from the calves down are swollen. They are calling in a diuretic today to my pharmacy to see if this will help with fluid retention.

I had the pump installed in May 2012. I had exhausted all other oral meds & patches. I did a 3 day in-patient trial and if you do this too make sure to babysit the little wire. Mine broke. Then they taped it up over my right shoulder so it was out of my way and I could also see where it was at all times. I kept rolling over it with the IV wires.

In 2008, I had 6 spine fractures and kyphoplasty on 3 levels. In 2011, I had iFuse on my left SI joint and screw fixation on my right. For some reason quite a bit of the bone cement oozed out into the disc spaces and there is a chip of bone cement on my L5 nerve root. I am not willing to do any more back surgery. If it works the relief seems to last for only a few months.

Thanks for responding everyone! It makes me nervous to hear I am the first on the forum to have a pump for thoracic spine. It feels so invasive and I am only 28... the Dr basically said either live with it or try the pump. I am afraid that the surgery itself may cause more CP as every other surgery I have had (11) has led to increased pain rather than relief. It appears anywhere I've been cut into has resulted into CP in that area. At the same time, I don't want to miss out on a chance for pain relief. This is also a new PM dr so I don't really have a history or relationship with him. I have an appt with my old dr in 2 weeks to get her thoughts on the idea. I had to switch drs b/c my old one doesn't do on-going med mgmt - once someone is relatively stable she wants refills covered by a PCP but my PCP won't write for strong narcotics such as Butrans. All this stuff is just so frustrating and disheartening. Hard to know what the "right" choice is. I am considering getting off opiates for a while and seeing how I do but I am afraid of majorly regretting that decision. It would basically mean titrating off the Butrans but I have a bunch of vicodin and opana at home so if things got really bad I have options. I am just having problems with the Butrans - the patches are getting increasingly more itchy and I am having trouble finding a sleeping pill that doesn't cause daytime drowsiness when mixed with Butrans. I sat in a parking lot for 2 hours on Sat before I felt comfortable driving home b/c I was hit with a wave of drowsiness. My main pain pump question is - have you spoken with anyone who had complications from it? I will look up posts re: pumps next but wasn't sure if any of you knew of anything off the top of your heads.

thanks!

I have tried vicodin, percocet, opana, fentynal patches, methadone, suboxone, butrans, flexiril, dantrolene, valium, lyrica, gabapentin, zonegran... ketamine infusions and trigger pt injections, RFA, epidurals, facet injections, trigger pt injections - with lidocaine and tordal (tordal helps some but doesn't last long), massage, pt, chiropractor.... probably more but I cannot think of them at this point :). I am having issues on the Butrans - particularly with grogginess and itching. My body just doesn't seem to respond to pain meds, which makes me wonder if the pain pump will help. Suboxone was amazing when I first took it but the grogginess was unbearable. That's why we tried butrans but it isn't strong enough until it is too much with the grogginess again. I see my old PM dr in 2 weeks and am going to run all this by her. I don't know how going off pain meds will work. Probably not well. I am just at the end of my rope and don't know if I can handle the side effects of the butrans but there don't seem to be any/many other options.
I went to the new PM dr to see if I would be a candidate for IDET, which I am not. Like I said before, I need a dr to do long term med mgmt but I agree that I am nervous about making this step with a dr I haven't worked with for a long time. At the same time, if I am low on options I don't know what else he can recommend. I look forward to seeing what the old dr recommends. I know my old office does not do the pain pumps so I cannot get it done there. I am not a candidate for SCS either. Not sure what else I can do at this point and that is a tough place to be. I am glad you haven't had any problems with the pump - that was my biggest fear.