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My husband also had an intrathecal pain medicine delivery pump implanted, with morphine as the medicine of choice. That also failed to give him relief from his cancer pain. We were told how helpful it would be, with lower side effects from less medicine and maximum benefit. Nothing worked. The surgery to implant the pump left him even worse off and he never really recovered from what was an outpatient procedure. His last two months following the pain pump surgery were not worth living. It was as bad of an outcome as could have been scripted. I am deeply regretful of the entire experience, and we went to two of the country's top experts in his form of cancer.
Replies to "My husband also had an intrathecal pain medicine delivery pump implanted, with morphine as the medicine..."
That's a shame. I hope they knew that morphine was a drug that had worked for him in the past. They knew it didn't work for me. I had it several times orally and got no relief from it., I've also heard of people who have a lot of stomach upset with morphine. Because of the seriousness of the surgery to implant the pump, my Doctor wanted to make sure he was using a drug that worked for me. I got good relief from Dilaudid, (which is much more powerful), so they used that. They also tried me on Fentanyl but that also didn't give good relief.
I've since had Gene Sight testing, ("Gene Sight), is a brand name). It predicts which drugs you will metabolize well. They can test for Mood drugs, Psychotropic meds and pain meds. I learned I was getting the right pain med but a less effective med for depression and I switched with good response. Ending the crap shoot of trying to find which drugs will work for serious mental illness is the greatest thing that this gene survey accomplishes. I have a son who needs those drugs and people can spend years trying different thing that dont work or make them sick which is horrible when their needs are so acute. Turns out that it's not that certain drugs only work on some people and hit or miss is the only approach. Whether certain drugs work or not depends more on the bodies ability to metabolize them. Mayo now is offering a similar service but it is much more expensive than Gene Sight, which as far as I know was the first test of its kind. Any Doctor can obtain it for a patient. They have to register with the Gene Sight company, a process which is free and takes them about 15 minutes. Still most doctors are resisting doing this. I think it offends their egos to have a test tell them which med they should prescribe. I wish your husband had access to it when it might have helped him. Love and Blessings
I am so very sorry to hear of your families horrible experience.
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You did what you could. Sometimes pain is so intense nothing can help. My husband had cancer metastatic on his vertebrae and nothing helped. I am sorry about the process you had to go through but at a time like that you grab any hope possible. Pray someday there will be an answer. God bless you.