intrathecal pump?

i have severe spinal degeneration pain and right foot neuropathy and currently take MSContin400mg qd, Hydromorphone 8mg up to 5 per day, roxicodone30mg 4x per day, and soma and other stuff. i am mid thirties and cannot get out of a pain slump. a pump trial has been offered to me but it scares me to death. anybody with similar situation that could give me some advice on yes or no?I thank anybody that comments up front

thank you

 

      morning Spinal soldier!...I too was offered the trial...but after meeting a PM about it..he didn't think it would help my case...and I'm not sure how he came to that answer, and he was kinda wishy washy about it, as he told me one thing, and then seemed to tell my Dr another. Pain management is tough here where I live. At the moment I'm in limbo waiting on my Dr's next move. However I have had a pretty good reduction in my pain levels lately.

    There is a group that deals only with the pumps called "Pumpsters" and I found a lot of information about them...so you might want to visit their site as well.

   Good luck!

 SE

Hi Spinal Soldier, I have a pump and have had it since 2005. I ran out of options on pain meds, either severe side effects or full blown allergic reactions. I have a real screwed up system when it comes to any type of medication.

Getting the pump was the best thing I could have done. The main thing I caution anyone about with a pump is your dr must have a lot of experience and knowledge about pumps and the different types of medications used in the pumps. If the dr does not have this experience then the patient is no better off with the pump because it is not being used to its fullest capacity and your pain will still be out of control and not at an acceptable level. Its not a matter of filling the pump with Morphine & adjusting the setting and sending the patient on their happy way. Actually, I have been noticing people get better pain control with a cocktail of meds in the pump rather than using say Morphine or Dilaudid alone. Bottom line, is your dr can make your pump either a success or failure, it all depends on how well they know their stuff.

The PM dr that recommended my pump swore he knew all about them and how to handle pump patients. Well, he lied, he did not know squat. He cut my increases off very early in the game, I was in horrible pain and then to add insult to injury my BT meds was 2mg of Dilaudid. 2mg of Dilaudid is nothing, I stopped accepting the scripts because I was wasting money getting it filled. He told me I was maxed out on my pump & BT meds. Most of my days were spent in bed because I could not do much of anything else. If I wanted to go see my grandson in a school play, I spent 3 days in bed doing nothing, not lifting a hand and then I went to the play and came straight home back to bed. I spent a lot of time either praying for a miracle or asking God just to put me out of my misery. That is not existing. Then I got to where I could not stand up straight because the pain was too bad.

Why didn't I leave this dr, well little did I know once a pump is put in finding another dr willing to take over your care is next to impossible. No, I was not told this before hand either. Also, my dr had the very best manner and every one of us patients believed what he told us. When he told me I had maxed out my meds in the pump & BT meds, I believed him. There were no orals meds I could be put on, had already been there and done that so I tried accepting this to be the best I could get, there was nothing left for me.

Then my PM dr decided to close his practice down and he referred all of his patients out to other drs. There was 45 of us that had pumps and he met with another pump dr that reviewed our charts and decided she would take his pump people.

This dr was a retired neurosurgeon with 10yrs of experience with pumps. She use to implant them. She also mixes her own compounds for the pumps which is great. She took one look at me and shook her head and the first words out of her mouth were not only have you been under treated as a patient but your pump has been grossly misused and this happens when drs do not know how to manage them. She said the dose he had me on in the pump is what you start people out on, it was not a maintenance dose at all. She laughed and said she did not know they made Dilaudid in 2 mg because that is nothing. She asked me how I had managed and coped for so long since there was no change in my treatment for 2 yrs. I told her I had become use to the pain, it was all I knew. She said well you are right people can become use to pain. But, she patted my shoulder and said I can help you with your pain and I am going to get you back up on your feet living a life. She had to more than double the strength of pain meds in my pump & I have 8mg of Dilaudid for BT meds. Life is good now, I am able to do so many things but I lost 2 yrs of my life because of a dr not knowing what he was doing. One of the biggest things that still bothers me is after walking bent over for 2 yrs, I can not stand up straight anymore, my bent over appearance is now permanent thanks to that dr..

I joined Pumpsters back when I first got my pump. It took nearly three weeks before I was given the ok to be a member. The guy that runs that group does some kind of check to make sure you are who you say you are. You gave them certain info & they check you out. Then they have a lot rules about stuff and I just found too much paranoia for my taste and did not stick around. I mean if you posted something and mentioned your city boy they were all over you about it. I had been here at HW as a member and had what I thought were good user rules, I had never been called down here and over there it was a different ball game. Like I said too much paranoia for my taste, very, very uptight. Its been a very long time since I checked them out, not sure how the place is ran now. What I could not figure out is why or who did they think wanted to join that group that was going to spy on them or whatever.

You really should go to Medtronics website, its an awesome site, very informative with accurate info. Also, check out our search feature here at the forum and type in pain pumps, you will get lots of info there too.

Sorry for the length of this post, email me if you wish with any questions, my email is listed here. Put in your heading you are from HW or else there is a good chance I will delete the email, lol. I only open mail from people I know. Take care...Susie

In my lengthy post I think I forgot to say, if it were me I would certainly do the trial. You have nothing to lose by doing it, and maybe lots to lose by not doing it. I was desperate enough by the time the pump was recommended that if the dr had told me jumping out a window may have been my cure, I am afraid I would have considered it because that is how desperate I had become. Its never good to let your mental state of mind to put you in that place either....Susie