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I have a Pain pump with Morphine, I'm still in so much Pain
After my Trail I did get a lot of pain relief but after that pump was put in I didn't get the same amount of pain relief as the trail Then they told me I just need a higher dose but after 3 months of Adjustments I was receiving 50% more then when it started & I had 4 Boluses that were higher than the trail & still no significant pain relief, I told them I wanted to change to hydromorphone, but they kept telling me I need a higher dose now I'm maxed out of morphine and now they're telling me that I have to dose down all the way back to zero then they can switch me to hydromorphone but in the meantime they're not going to give me anything orally to take for pain, I read clinical trials and also trials that doctors have had with their patients and there's many of them that switched from morphine to hydromorphone when it was time to refill the pump but these doctors are telling me they cannot mix the two drugs even though they pull all of the morphine out of the pump there's only a tiny amount left in the catheter has anyone else had this experience we have to go a couple years to get changed over to a stronger drug?? It seems to me that they can give me a an equivalent dose of hydromorphone and to be conservative give me 25% less, Why can't they switch me when I get my pump Refilled because there's just a tiny amount of Morphine left in the catheter, has anyone had their medication changed from morphine to hydromorphone or to fentanyl?? But without dosing down to zero. I would love to hear from other people that have had this experience morphine did not work for them. Thank You Michael
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What kind of trial did you have? I had the injection. First one was morphine. Nothing. Two weeks later I received an injection of hydromorphone. Wow! Pain went from an eight down to about a two. Went ahead with the permanent implant. Very low dose initially, so no pain relief. I kept having the dosage increased about every three to four weeks. Still no relief. We moved to Delaware in 2023, so I had to find a new PM doc. I kept upping the dosage but still no relief. At one point in 2024, I had the dosage increased by 20%. It made me feel pretty woozy. I started to have the dosage reduced because I felt it wasn't helping. I called the original PM doc who did the trial to find out how much the trial dosage was. Anyway, I have decided to start taking the dosage back up along with four boluses. My current PM says that I was still on a fairly low dose when I stopped going up. I am hoping that I will ultimately find a dosage that will give me some relief. I know that this may not help you in your situation. I have read that Hydromorphone is about five times more powerful than morphine.
I hope you can get the new drug in your pump sooner than later. It is claimed that the pain pump is 94% successful for patients. So, make me a believer! Make US believers!
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2 ReactionsI had an interthecal Medtronic pain pump implanted for over 18 years until I had t removed. It worked very well for my chronic pain , with no side effects at all that I noticed (important to consider). Clear minded, no constipation, etc. This is not a simple issue for there are many variables. Something to consider, with the large morphine dosage (massive really, if you are correct) some pain relief should have been noticed! That leads me to believe that the catheter placement is not correct. It seems it may not be positioned at the exact location of the pain generation. I have much experience and there might be others issues to consider, but I just noticed your post and quickly wanted to alert you to that option (maybe you already knew).
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2 Reactions@rockon79. Thanks for your post. I hope to have the catheter checked next time I get a refill. You are correct. If the trial worked, I should feel some pain relief at some point. Hard to imagine that this powerful medication going into my intrathecal space would not do something.
What I told them that I thought it wasn't working but I clarified saying I'm not getting real relief Then they had to check out the catheter with a CT scan and then a minor surgery to make sure the pump is working, I asked them to change to something stronger and again they said you need a higher dose, I don't use the boluses anymore because they don't work, I went with the pump because I didn't want to take oral pain meds, I feel really stuck with this whole situation and I do feel they should have said we are going to change you to a stronger medication, it's hard to function, I hope I don't have to switch to another Doctor.