My trial is scheduled for July 18. My first trial was supposed to be June 7th but after waiting 45 minutes, they called me to the desk and said my procedure had been canceled, that they didn’t schedule me for an intrathecal injection. I had not taken my morning pain pill and could hardly make it into the office. This has been going on 8 years. I live alone (I am a widow) and moved into a 55+ community, then Covid hit. When the restrictions were lifted, I couldn’t go to any functions because of my back, hip and knee. I can’t stand more than 5 minutes, can’t bend (use a grabber), can’t walk more than two houses down, if I take 2 5 mg oxycodone, I am dizzy and off balance like a drunk. The pain pump was my last resort because I am tired of dealing with the pain, being told my Xtampza is out of stock (I take 9 mg in the morning and 9 mg at bedtime and 3 oxycodone) and getting “the look” when I pick up my oxycodone. My neurosurgeon has basically said there is nothing more they can do. I have rods, bars and struts in my back, am fused from L2 to S1. My last surgery in 2020, the neurosurgeon severed my L3 nerve hoping to give me relief from the groin, hip and knee pain. It just made things WAY worse, the pain is worse and now I have spasms in my left leg when I go to bed at night (have not slept through the night for 8 years). I am 77 years old but was very active before all this. Whatever time I have left, I would love to be pain-free or at least at a level of pain that is better than this.
I don’t tolerate morphine so I will be going on Dilaudid. I did have an external Dilaudid pump in 2013 when I had my first spinal fusion when my L3 vertebra was all but destroyed (I do not have osteoporosis) and I did okay with the Dilaudid.