My pain pump trial was a quick morphine injection. After a week, I reported a 50-60% improvement but I wanted to create 8 categories of activity to break down each (getting out of bed, sitting up from prone position, up / down stairs, walking, etc) they were not interested. I have exhausted all other known treatments, Epidurals, RFA, SCS, Rx and they failed to help.
The pain pump was filled with straight morphine, they never asked or told. My first two fusion were 30 yrs ago, I couldn’t tolerate morphine then to hold food. They switched to Demerol in 2 days as injections into my thigh. After the pain pump was filled and turned on, I began to have lower GI distress, gas and diarrhea. The anesthesiologist claimed the morphine could not migrate from the spines Epidural sack to my GI tract. Being concerned for constipation he would not increase dosage. My thoughts are, shut off, reduce dosage or increase it and see if change occurs. Because, not changing meds or anything is doing the same thing over & over, yet expecting a different result is the definition of insanity! No response except he would phone a friend to ask around, then called me. That was almost a week ago and no call. The nurse said he was aware and would call tomorrow. We’ll see.