Had pain pump implanted. No relief. Anyone have similar experience?

Hi yes I have had the same problem for the last five to seven years. They have tried several medicines for clonidine bupicaine. I had a new pump put in in May and ever since then I've had a burning under my skin I'm trying to figure out what it is cuz the hospital can't figure it out I'm wondering if it's the tubing going into the spine. The burning is horrible!

Hey I'm the same way I don't metabolize my medication correctly either. I am now weaning off my pump I've had it for over 5 years and hasn't got any relief. The last medication they tried was fentanyl and that didn't work. They also changed my pump and we rooted the line in my spine and after that I got a burning under my skin gets worse when I sit down and lean back in my chair. After I'm up for like 15 minutes it's subsides.

I’m going through that now. Have pain pump with morphine, baclofen and bupivicaine . Just had a concentration change with the morphine and I’m still in pain , no relief from my cervical pain. I’m going in this Friday for an ablation of cervical nerves. Let see what happens next

Have you ever had the unit dye tested to see if the medication is being delivered into the the intrathecal space and not into the surrounding tissues? There could be a slight leak.

You might ask if hydromorphone could be used in the pump. Stronger than morphine. I had my first trial with morphine. No relief. Second trial was with hydromorphone, pain dropped from 8 to about a 2.

I had an intrathecal pain pump removed after 18 years ( that's a story for another time). During that time many adjustments were needed. After getting the correct strength of the correct chemical and the correct machine adjustments, among other considerations, the pain relief was wonderful. Many on this forum have not gotten the pain relief expected or predicted and their providers only increased the narcotic, with apparently little results! Since that seems to be the case. perhaps another very important aspect hasn't been considered-that of the catheter placement. Some main benefits of an implanted pain pump are that (if correctly installed); #1-it can supply a much higher dosage than oral dosing, #2- the narcotic goes directly to the pain area which allows for much, much less side effects, I was clear headed, no constipation etc. This is because most of the narcotic goes directly to the pain source area and does not go systemic. Morphine is so powerful that an increased dosage should provide at least some amelioration unless the morphine is delivered to an area that is not the source of the pain. So catheter placement is extremely important and should be suspect if the pain is not reduced at least somewhat at higher dosing or the initial test for pump implantation resulted in tangible relief.

Excellent message. Why did you elect to have your pump removed if it was giving you great relief?

I agree that proper placement of the catheter is paramount. I’ve had mine checked twice. Supposedly, everything is fine(I guess). I am on a drug that is supposedly stronger than morphine. It worked fine in the trial. Accordingly, I should be having some kind of pain relief. But, no.

My chronic pain was cause by a fairly substantial physical trauma to both shoulders. 4 years of high doses of oral narcotics got me hazy minded, constipated and very dependent. The pump solved all those problems plus provided pain relief that was wonderful (only those who suffer chronic know what I mean when I say "wonderful"). After 10 years or so I started to realize that my shoulder injuries were healing and getting healthy. This continued till about 15 years had gone by, leading me to entertain that I MIGHT no longer have chronic pain, at least not to the point of of being intolerable again. So I started to slowly reduce the pain relief. My anesthesiologist did this by weakening the morphine solution, by mixing the morphine supply with non narcotics such as ropivacaine and by decreasing the flow of the pump. After about 3 years of titration we got down to the weakest solution and the lowest pump delivery rate and no pain. So I took a gamble that, at this point, I hadn't sufficient pain that justified the pump so I had it removed. For quit a while I had this gnawing feeling that all this morphine 24 seven can't be a good thing, and I was right! A couple of days after no morphine, I suffered terrible withdrawal, which lasted for months and my anesthesiologist knew nothing of this type of withdrawal to help (I think most don't care about this aspect). I used prescribed oral morphine which only gave me constipation and nothing else! I won the gamble-no pain, but the total dependency of so much narcotic for so long was months of torture. Time revealed other subtle negatives never noticed while on morphine and when off got better. The point is, no matter what the delivery system, relief from chronic pain is life changing but must be balanced off with the negatives of long term opiate usage and eventual dependency or even addiction with all of it's difficulties and problems! I realize that for many their pain might never abate by itself like it did for me. Since I was so blessed, I must say It's great being narcotic free and I just wanted to suggest that this might be an option for some.

@rockon79 , I was told, and have read, that the drug enters the intrathecal space but does not become systemic, so there should not be any "withdrawal" symptoms. Seems that your experience blows that information out of the water. How are you feeling these days?

My morphine pumps have failed a few times resulting in withdrawal. When It was removed I went into full blown withdrawal. Several on this forum have had similar experiences. Thats because the pump was my only source of narcotic. So, in my situation some did go systemic. That only makes sense since the pain receptors are are in the brain and other areas that might not be where the pain is issuing from. So the narcotic has to eventually reach those receptors areas from the pain producing area to be effective and that means traveling to those receptor areas. Those receptors become greedy for the constant supply of morphine and when it is stopped that is when withdrawal sets in. Overly simplified and in layman's term, but I believe you get the point. Also, many anesthesiologists know this delivery system can result in dependence.