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Pain pump, I have one, how about one for you?
I have had an implanted pain pump in my abdomen for about 18 months. It is a miracle. I get a total of 4.764 mgs. of Dilaudid, If I administer all of the 10 extra micro does I can have in 24 hours. If I don't use those extra doses I get 2.74 mgs. over 24 hours. The effect is 300 times more effective than if I took the same dose orally. I go to my doctors office every 3 months to have the pump refilled. I'm there for about 15 minutes. The actual process of refilling the pump takes no more than 5 minutes and is painless. No prescriptions to worry about, no one wondering if I'm misusing or selling my pain meds, no one making me feel like a drug addict or a criminal. In our current climate this is even more important than it was two years ago. Many Doctors want nothing to do with pain patients or writing scripts for pain meds. I know many of you have been there. This method is especially good for back issues as the drug is delivered via a catheter which runs up my spin. Yes, I still have pain but it's pain I can live with. If your Doctor doesn't know about this or doesn't want to do it contact a pain clinic. The Doctor who put mine in is a Neurosurgeon. If you have any questions please respond.
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Hi I am in the same boat as you I have had a pain pump for probably 6 to 7 years and they have changed it from Dilaudid I'm on fentanyl right now but it's been changed a few times different medicines I've had bupicaine taken out because it was making my leg numb clonidine is in with the fentanyl right now still not doing anything. They will not give any orals with the pump. Before the doctor I had no he was giving methadone with the pump. He left the new doctor had to change my pump because it stopped working and she stopped my methadone because she said that it's very risky to take that with an implanted pump. Even though I've been on methadone with it for the last as long as I've had the pump 6 years or so. How things change. I see a lot of success on here with the pain pumps I wish I was one of them. I am trying to find a different doctor so I'm actually going to try to wean myself off to see if the pump is even working. Because if it is working and I think that it isn't then I have more pain than I thought I did because my pain number is like a nine! So the doctor today took 30% out on my fentanyl. We thought that was a large amount she said no I usually do 50 otherwise you can't tell if it's working or not. So we said well I'm going to withdraw and she said yes you're going to withdraw. I find myself sometimes when I'm at the doctors in another land of Make Believe because it doesn't seem like the doctors care about you paying it all. I've been going through this for so long I'm not asking for much I just want a little quality of life. Just wanted to say I'm very sorry that your pump never ended up working and just wanted to let you know that there is somebody else with the same problem. Good luck I hope you find something to take away some of your pain.
Sorry that you haven’t had success with the pump either. Seven years is a long time to have that thing hanging around in your abdomen. Why not titrate it down and have it taken out?
Have you tried a spinal cord stimulator? They can be a real help for pain.
I wish you well on your pain journey.
My pain pump was implanted in my abdomen. It has never helped with my pain, even after a very successful trial(dropped pain from 8 to a 2). Now it just sits there, flopping around like a big, old, stale bagel. I am getting it removed as soon as I get its output reduced to a safe level. I hope you have much success with yours. Many do.