Hi Hosta. I had a Medtronic Intrathecal morphine pain pump implanted in 2013. Like I said in my introduction below it worked for a couple years real good on my pain, but like other opioids I kept having to bump it up a little every 5-6 months or so. My dose now is a little over 4 mg per day. They say it only takes 1/300th of a dose compared to oral pain meds but you built up a tolerance. I'm weaning down now 15% per week due to not wanting any withdrawal symptoms. If you and your doctor think it's best for you, great. Oh, one more thing I found out in 5 years. When you need your pump refilled every 90 days or so good luck finding a doctor who will refill it if you're a traveler. My husband and I had to drive a 8 hour round trip to go to a doctor in North Dakota when there was a doctor 20 minutes away that could have filled it. He said point blank to me if I didnt put it in I won't take care of it. Once we got moved, I couldn't find a doctor for 150 miles in any direction that would fill it for me. They dont tell you these things before you go under the knife. If you're a homebody and dont travel much or dont plan to move perhaps you wont have this difficulty. We retired so we needed to move. Having no idea that this would happen.

@mdmo thanks for the info about the pain pump. My pain Dr keeps pushing me to have one but I've been dragging my feet with it mostly because I didn't want another surgery. I have a neighbor who has one and he likes his but he never goes anywhere. Most of my family live a great many miles from me, one daughter lives in Germany. I usually spend a month at a time there. Knowing that I may have trouble getting my medication helps me to decide.

Try Dilaudid in your pump, it is much stronger than morphine, less side effects.