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Pain pump failure
I had the Medtronics pain pump implanted a year ago. Nothing else had worked to relieve my severe lower back pain which radiated down to my buttocks, legs and feet. My spinal cord stimulator also stopped providing any pain relief. I had the pump output increased six to eight times with just a few days of decent relief. Then we moved to another state. New pain doc has increased the output 5 or 6 times. With my pain still hovering between a 7 and a 9, I was desperate. I took an old oxycodone which actually helped. But the pain amped up after a few days so I went back and he upped the dosage by 30% (quite drastic). By the end of the day, The pain had turned into a numb feeling. That night I could not sleep. I was on the verge of nausea and felt like a zombie. How much dosage is too much? I am still in bad pain unless I give myself a bolus, which sends me back into the numb, zombie state. I am afraid that I am in an overdose situation. My voicemail to the doc with these concerns has gone unanswered. How can a pain pump not relieve pain at this level? Really looking for someone with similar expereince and what you ultimately did.
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It is unimaginable. I thought at my age and all my ailments life was pretty much over...now I'm healing and just want to go out and dig in my garden.
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1 Reaction@heisenberg34 unfortunately no two bodies react the same way to any given medication because each one is unique. Hopefully by trial and error you and your doctor will arrive at a medication and dosage just right for you. The key is having a doctor who will not give up on you.
I know nothing about pain pumps. I assume they are made so as not to deliver lethal doses for liability reasons if nothing else. . However, adding that Oxycodone surely was not safe. What about turning off your stimulator for a few days or as long as you can tolerate and then call a Medtronic tech to begin a new phase of adjustment? I know it won’t deliver complete pain relief but may take enough away so that you can tolerate it. Adding lidocaine patches to the mix, although messy, sometimes helps me too. Best of luck.
The idea behind this is to be able to function on a fraction of the amount consumed by mouth. My doctor told me right off the bat to discontinue my oral prescription no matter what. I have morphine in mine and, thank God it is, so far at least, superior. Don't know whether or not I'm just lucky or what, but I am so pleased. I was told the very small amount of morphine that is working is several hundred times stronger than the oral dose.
So, the pain pump is an implanted device, placed under the abdomen. It delivers medication into the intrathecal space around the spinal cord in very tiny doses via a catheter sutured in place. The ideal plan is to have enough medication delivered to significantly reduce pain. Or, at best, mask it completely. It usually delivers morphine or hydromorpone (I am on hydromorphone). It has a success rate of 80-90%, I have never received any pain mitigation from mine, even after many, many adjustments upward, I think I am about at the upper limit.
My spinal cord stimulator gave up the ghost about three years ago. Waiting for the surgery to have it removed.
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2 ReactionsI have been "trial and erroring" this for 8 years. Been through a dozen pain docs. Failure after failure. However, I will soldier on until I find an answer... unless I run out of time.
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4 ReactionsMy pain pump has been increased more times than I can remember in the past year. I am concerned that the current level is way too high. It seems to be causing severe dry eye (according to my ophthamologist) and also dry mouth. I wake up at night, and my mouth is so dry I can't even swallow. I am going back to have the output reduced.
Has anyone else with a pain pump experienced such side effects. BTW, my pump has never given me any pain relief.
So, I did have my old spinal cord stimulator removed about a month ago. I am scheduled for an MRI in about a week and a half. Depending upon the results, I am considering a trial of another SCS. Two questions: For those of you who have had another scs implanted, how long did you have to wait before you could get the new one implanted? Second, I see that the Boston Scientific Wave rider is the highest rated scs. What has your experience been with this device?
I look forward to hearing back from you, my fellow commenters. I hope you find relief from your pain. May God bless you all.