Anyone had plexus nerve block for cancer pain?

I must admit to two things about the hospice we have gotten at home: 1. We have had a terrible experience with home hospice and
2. We still choose it over in-hospital care for my husband’s end of life.
I see “we” because without my daughter and son-in-laws support, I would not be able to care for him by myself. I am 5’5” and he is 5’10”. Even though he only weighs about 10 pounds more than I do at this stage (his 142 to my 132), I don’t have the strength or leverage to change his soiled disposable underwear and clean him properly without our daughter. There must always be two responsible adults in the house. We are on around the clock shifts for his care. I would not want it any other way, but the nurses who came (1 intake, 2nd for weekly visits bordered on negligence in their lack of care. We see a new nurse tomorrow. It is only because We are medical nerds that we have been able to advocate for ourselves. For example, we are now treating a urinary tract infection that was simply ignored by the nurse’s lack of concern. We insisted on a paracentesis procedure being done as an outpatient in the hospital day after tomorrow for the enormous fluid retention in my husband’s abdomen. We are now getting genuine medical help only because my daughter and I thought, finally, this simply cannot be normal end of life experiences. So, in short, you must be prepared to be able to “do it on your own” despite all the “you won’t be alone” promises made by various medical personnel. Good luck and all the best. Our experience with our hospital, however, has been outstandingly good.

My husband was hospitalized for the tremendous pain from pancreatic cancer tumors last month. He had tried opioids but nothing was helping the pain. He did the celiac plexus block and it did bring the pain down a few notches, not to a zero but enough that he can manage now on meds and was able to start chemo. We were told he received a numbing blocker but could go back for permanent block (I believe with alcohol) but there could be permanent side effects, chronic diarrhea. He’s hoping the chemo will reduce the tumor sizes and that will reduce the pain.

Thank you. We were told at the consult that this could be a risky procedure. We were given several names by a palliative pain surgeon at a palliative pain center affiliated with a top cancer center. He implied that he did not have the expertise even after performing about 30. We also asked the expert surgeon who performed the robotic Whipple with vein involvement.

We were informed the procedure is successful for about 50 percent and duration of relief is variable, but generally a month or more.

Our intention was to be proactive and get the patient on the lists for insurance reasons and to shorten scheduling times if it comes to it.

So far, he is increasing pain meds at a still reasonable level.

@fuzzybaker, I'm glad that the block helps with your wife's pain. It is hard for her, but also for you. Seeing a loved one in pain, we just wish we could take it away. How are you doing today?

Has anyone been advised to use a celiac plexus nerve block for back and upper abdominal pain caused by a neuroendocrine tumor in the tail of the pancreas? I am early into a clinical study at Mayo (FL) with octreotide injections every 15 days and I am scheduled for a scan in March to hopefully measure progress in arresting any possible growth. But it is my understanding that octreotide does not reduce current tumor size, only affecting further progression.

I hesitate to overuse ibuprofen (or stronger pain medicine) and the only other thing my oncologist has suggested is a nerve block. Have others successfully used this when surgery is not an option? I have sought out two opinions and both oncologists feel my pain is coming from pressure on a nerve - and with metastasizes to both lobes of my liver and a lymph node, neither would offer surgery. Fortunately, upper abdominal and middle back pain are the only symptoms I routinely experience. Knowledge of nerve blocks as common practice would be comforting and very much appreciated. I'm feeling quite alone as I've not seen anything about it posted in this group.

I've been advised (by well-meaning friends AND the docs) not to let this diagnosis rob me of my daily joy and experience a full life but it's really hard when pain is a constant reminder of a tumor in my pancreas (albeit non-functioning and slow growth). Can something relatively simple as a nerve block be helpful and if so, is this a sustainable option for the long haul as I'm only 68 and otherwise healthy?

Interesting my husband supposably has a Pnet in his tail of his pancreas and has had different measurements but neither has measure up to greater than 2 for them to do surgery. They (Hopkins and Mayo in Minnesota) have offered no treatments but wait. He has extreme pain after eating seems like the pressure of food in his stomach puts pressure on nerve/tumor. They recommend a nerve Bloch as well at our local health system. He has had 2 TAP blocks but not celiac plexus from my understanding. The 1st one worked about a 1.5 weeks. The 2nd he had done on 1/23 and so far he has had 1 flare up but it seem to subside and then went away. He does still have constant indigestion. They claim his is non functioning but I am not 100% sure they are correct I feel like they just haven’t caught his active when they have tested him. I am curious what your history of symptoms and progression of your journey has been. Ours has been frustrating as my husband’s quality of life has been not good because of the constant pain and occasional diarrhea flare ups which can be bad.

@donnarushing55 and @tinerobison, I moved your questions about celiac plexus nerve block related to pancreatic NETs to this existing discussion:

- Anyone had plexus nerve block for cancer pain?
https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/celiac-plexus-block-1/
I did this so you can read previous messages and connect easily with others like @lulusmom @granite @beatrixlee @lizduffey @joylynnlove @stageivsurvivor and others.