Had pain pump implanted. No relief. Anyone have similar experience?

I have facet nerve issues in the neck. 3 fusions and a pain stimulator device put it. It works like a tens unit and would buzz and give me migraines. I have suffered with cervical vertigo. After 15 years, facets at C67 and released my entire lower body and C23 facet nerves caused cervical
Has your doctor considered facet issues? Try nerve blocks to see if it helps.i now have lumbar issues that appear to be coming from the sacral near hips. Hips are always in pain. Keep pushing your docs till they figure it out, good luck

I have has many injections into my facets at L5-S1 to no avail. Nerve ablations, no help. Spinal fusion of L5-S1, no help. Spinal cord stimulator with meds worked pretty well for about 3.5 years until they stopped working.

When my problems arrived 2004-2007, I had ablation for C34-C56. None of the ablation lasted. On the last ones a month ago, I said I had ablation around 42. DR says the nerves are more likely to grow back in a younger person. I'm 64 now and will see how long it lasts. I think fusions are the only way to kill it for sure. I'm currently fused in the middle and will continue ablations because I don't want my whole neck fused. I had the fusions but still pain, got pain implant with a battery, tens unit time. The leads themselves stopped migraines but if I used the battery on the implant it would buzz on my nerves and had a migraine in less than 30 minutes so could never use as planned but freaky enough those leads placed at 3 levels stopped the daily excruciating migraines daily

I have Chronic Pain Syndrome over my whole body and used oral hydromorphone for years at very high doses w no side effects.
I had a pain pump installed targeting my lower back down to my feet after a successful trial.
My provider was new and after a year was still at a very low dose (less than a microgram per day) and I had little to very little relief of pain. I switched to another provider who increased my dose aggressively (up to 7.3 micrograms per day over the next year) and I received enough relief in my feet and legs to be able to walk/stand most of the day.
It’s been 3 years now w no relief to my lower back. After a catheter test to ensure proper placement & some genetic testing, they switched me to Fentanyl. We’re still titrating up but have had much less relief that on the hydromorphone and no relief still in the lower back.

My point is not that it won’t work on backs, but that we all react differently to meds and providers are scared to increase the dose even when it is blatantly obvious that that is what is needed.
If you are not having any side effects and they are holding your dosage down, ask them about it and if they do not want to increase it to see if it can be more effective then find another provider - but interview them first.

My specialist (new one) has been increasing my dosage over the past few months. The dosages were being increased every few weeks when it was first implanted. Yhis new guy said he was going to add some kind of anesthetic to the hydromorphone in the pump. If it helps any, I will repost to let you know.
I think docs are limited as to how much the meds can be increased as a safety issue. I could be wrong.

They definitely have to be careful & safe & know their patients tolerances, however, I have found that in my case (I do not metabolize most drugs well) they go too slow.
Yes, they added Bupivocaine to my pump last pump fill. It is like lidocaine but safe for the pump.
I am not sure if I notice any difference with it, but like I said, I don’t metabolize a lot of drugs completely.
Sounds like you are on the right track.
My provider has agreed to keep increasing to see if the Fentanyl will help at higher doses but switch back to Dilaudid if we get no positive results.
It’s just a pain (literally) to switch medications & takes time.
Good luck.

I can't even remember how many times the dosage from my pain pump has been increased. 12, 15? At what point do you (or the doc) say, "This obviously isn't working, let's try something else". I wish I could find someone who would really look into this pain with a real desire to get to the root of my pain. Fortunately, my son lives just outside DC and has a neurosurgeon looking into my situation. I think he is affiliated with one of the major hospitals. Fingers crossed.

Do you know there is a test that evaluates how your body metabolizes all medications?
Doctors are so afraid of giving pain meds. Tell your doctor you need more, increase a little at a time to make them happy. Or go in and cry about the pain, they don't listen unless you make a big deal about it and not having a life.

I think that my new pain med doc has been pretty good about increasing the dosage. Altogether, I have had the dosage upped at least 12-15 times. At my next pump refill, he is going to add an anesthetic to the hydromorphone. Some folks are using fentynal. That's a road I'm not sure I want to go down.
Thanks for your response.

I have had lower back and buttock pain for the past 8 years ever since I fell hard on my back while skiing. I had it under decent control through meds and spinal cord stimulator until February of 2021. I was out doing about an hour of gentle skiing and, about an hour or so after getting home, all the pain came back with a vengeance. Just like that. Like a switch had been turned on. Short version: Have seen multiple pain specialists and chiropractors. New spinal cord stimulator.
The last thing was that I had the pain pump implanted back in April. This was supposed to have a success rate of 94%. So far it has offered little help, even after numerous adjustments. Has anyone else had a similar experience with the pain pump? The trial showed that I was better on hydromorhone than morphine. I know that some docs prescribe fentynal for the pump, but I'm not sure that I want to go down that road.
Appreciate any information/experiences.