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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 all depends on the medication that is in it. I had my pump for 15 years before a surgeon cut the catheter to it. They would have to repeat the fusion and he’d do it all over again. Finally they just turned it off.
The medication I had in mine was fentanyl, dilaudid and baclofen. It my pain was almost gone. . I could do everything I needed to during the day until, like I mentioned at the beginning, a dr cut the catheter and messed everything up
@scmartie That really stinks! Is there any possibility of you having a new pump/catheter implanted. What is your pain level now, without the pump? Hope you find something.
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1 Reaction@heisenberg34 the following year they put in a new one but I became septic with that one and it had to come out immediately. No with the CDC guidelines they will not put those pain meds on it anymore. My pain is about a 7 most days. I’m even having issue just walking
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1 Reaction@scmartie I am very sorry to hear of your difficulties. When you say that there are CDC guidelines that prevent you from having pain meds put in, are you referring to the mix of fentanyl, baclofen, and dilaudid? I would think that you could get just dilaudid. Of course it doesn't really matter at this point since you have no pump, Prayers for some kind of intervention for your pain.
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1 Reaction@archie2 Good to hear back from you again. This has been the most frustrating thing ever in my life. Here I sit with a daily continuous of 2.85 mg and six blouses. I had some noticeable improvement last week when I used five of the six. Tried to verify the next day, but five didn’t help, not even six. I know there are others here who have said that they had to go up to four, even five mg daily to get relief. I’m afraid my pain doc won’t be willing to go that high. Do you know your current level?
Thanks again, Chris
So, are you saying that your dosage of Dilaudid is 6.7 mg/24hours? And you are raising it because you need more pain relief? What would you say is your pain level on the good, old 1-10 scale?
I have a Medtronic’s pump, installed in 2023. I can access my settings by tapping on the three bars in the upper left of the remote.
I really appreciate your willingness to share your pain journey. Do you ever get hesitation from your doctor in raising it up so high?
Have a blessed day, my friend.
I’m not certain if this applies to your situation but I have had a pain pump since 2006 and now have hyperalgesia from the Dilaudid in the pump. I get no pain relief at all from it. According to my doctor I’ve had the drug in my system so long that it no longer provides any help. When I’ve tried taking oral opioids they do nothing or make my pain worse. So now I’m in the process of decreasing the dosage until I’m weaned off it for a couple months. The hope is it can then be increased again and provide pain relief like it should.
I wish you luck and hope you and your doctor can find the source of your pump problems.
@thingie Wow, twenty years is a long time to have a pump. And to no longer get relief seems odd. Another Connect commenter has had his since 2007 and has had very few increases. Do you know what your pump output is in terms of mg/24 hours? I was just chatting with someone who is sitting at about 6.7 mg/24hrs. My current Medtronics pump is at 2.87. I only get slight relief after giving myself five or six boluses. I sincerely hope you can get back to some good pain relief.
@heisenberg34 Even just oral opioids cause dry mouth dry eyes etc
@jeanninec Thanks for your response. I guess I will deal with the dry mouth as best as I can.