Pain pump, I have one, how about one for you?

Hello! My name is Angel. I have spinal Adhesive Arachnoiditis. It is a nonstop pain that is debilitating. I had a pain Dr that punctured my spinal cord and shot depo medrol into my spinal cord. After the puncture, they had to do a blood patch to stop the spinal leak. In the rush to so the blood patch, while transferring me onto a gurny, they dropped me and broke my back. This is 5 years of hell. There are no Dr's that even want to touch pain patients. We are discriminated against and left to suffer. This is inhumane and its all done to cover the butts of the Drs who harm their patients. God bless you! I pray that one day we can have some help. One day at a time sweet Jesus

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I am on my second Medtronic pain pump. Every seven years it needs to be replaced, it is a same day procedure. Every discin my back is either herniated or compromised. I've had both front and back cervical C2-C7 operations. My complete lumbar spine was fused with a laminectomy. My left shoulder hip, knee and hip are replaced. About nine years ago I became in operable, and was offered either the stimulator or a morphine pump. I spoke with two women who had the stimulator and tney told me don't waste your money or your time. So i choose the pain pump. With it I can get out of bed in the morning and goo about my daily rountine. It is like getting your life back. Sometimes there is breakthrough pain - if i overdo it or the pain comes from somewhere else, like my shoulder. I can take some meds by mouth ffor that problem.I;m 74 years old and I have to adjust to my condition, which sometimes is hard. All in all, if you have patience and follow the instructions you can feel a lot better.it's better than being knocked out all the time and unable to drive, etc. hope this helps.

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The last resort or the ultimate solution? Are you going to be in pain for the rest of your life, serious pain affecting your quality of life and desire to live? Don't forget, because of my situation, I had access to unlimited supplies of opioids, within reason, 262 mgs per day, and even those doses became ineffective. Even so they were dulling my brain and senses. I was not experiencing euphoria or highs of any kind. They just stopped working well enough and left me with a syndrome of hypersensitivity that made any small pain just unbearable. The pump brings me sufficient relief to carry on and be mentally sharp. I am still disabled by pain because walking causes great pain and weariness. I have less then one working lung and the effort to breath wears me out. The pump is safe, cheap, doesn't make problems for my doctors on whom I depend. Many of you may note that this reflects big change from my previous position advocating for easy access to all dugs and that still works for a time. The added stress that obtaining those meds really complicates your life and adds to stress and depression which both increase the experience of having pain. If your pain comes and goes or if your recovering from something that will get better then oral meds are appropriate and should be available but they are not always easy to get these days. I had some are doctors who trusted me and understood that giving me control over what I took resulted in me needing and taking less. But we must never forget, humans love to get high. It starts when your about 3 years old and you realize you can alter your consciousness by spinning in circles until you get dizzy and fall down. What do we do next? We stand up and do it again. Say you have pain meds for what ever reason and you have a day or a function that you really want to be present for. You want no pain for one day or evening. So you take an extra pill or two and your brain experiences euphoria. Maybe it works so well the next time a situation .like that comes along you take 3 extra pills and you get wacked and your brain really likes it. At this point your brain becomes a free agent. It's still ,living in your head but it has it's own desires and agenda now. If you haven't lived with or around addicts you have no idea how little control many people have from this point on. I have seen junkies and other addicts do unbelievable things not just to get high but just to stave off withdrawal. I was sometimes denied pain meds when I hurt so much I wanted to die but I never hurt badly enough to go to the street to buy. The drive to be out of pain is not that strong, not nearly as strong as the brains desire to repeat the experience of euphoria. Having witnessed this behavior in junkies back in the 70's, I was able to resist ever taking enough meds to completely eliminate my pain. I knew how easy it would be to slip over that line into euphoria and how hard it is to not repeat that behavior. I guess I was lucky said the guy whose quality of life has been greatly diminished for 30 years, whose successful career as a glass artist was brought to an end and his ability to walk takin away by pain. Anything is better than addiction. If you doubt how bad it can be or that it can happen to you just stop and look at how many people have died, not from pain but from overdoses buying street pills or stolen pills they took after months of abstinence not realizing how much their tolerance had gone down.

Again, ic your in pain and are going to stay that way, maybe try the spinal stimulator. Personally I don't think they are worth a damn but they work for some people. Beyond that, the i trathecal pump is the answer.

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I had a laminectomy about 5 or 6 years ago, every thing was going well for a while. For the past 2+ years I have ahd chronic back pain. I did physical therapy, chriopractor, injections and burning the nerves but nothing worked. In September 2021 the doctor decided to try spinal chord stimulator. The trial was amazing, 100% pain free for the first time in yeasrs. When they did the surgery the paddle had to be placed higher than they wanted because of scar tissue. After trying numerous programs trying to get it to reach area, finally was told it was not going to work. February 2021 in for another surgery to run perk wires from battery to painful area bypassing using the paddle. The doctor opened me up but could not get the wires in place again because of to much scar tissue. Now are talking about implanting pain pump. I am going to do the trial for it on March 8, 2022. I'm really considering having the implant if the trial goes well. My husband is really against the pain pump because he doesn't like the idea of pain meds for the rest of my life, but I really need some relief.

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I had a laminectomy about 5 or 6 years ago, every thing was going well for a while. For the past 2+ years I have ahd chronic back pain. I did physical therapy, chriopractor, injections and burning the nerves but nothing worked. In September 2021 the doctor decided to try spinal chord stimulator. The trial was amazing, 100% pain free for the first time in yeasrs. When they did the surgery the paddle had to be placed higher than they wanted because of scar tissue. After trying numerous programs trying to get it to reach area, finally was told it was not going to work. February 2021 in for another surgery to run perk wires from battery to painful area bypassing using the paddle. The doctor opened me up but could not get the wires in place again because of to much scar tissue. Now are talking about implanting pain pump. I am going to do the trial for it on March 8, 2022. I'm really considering having the implant if the trial goes well. My husband is really against the pain pump because he doesn't like the idea of pain meds for the rest of my life, but I really need some relief.

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Tell your husband it's your back and your pain.

The pain pump delivers such a small dose of meds there are virtually no side affects. I started at about 3.5 mg of hydromorphone per 24 hours. Five years later that is up to 3.9 mg. This replaced 21q0 mgs. of hydromorphone, 60 mgs. of oxycontin and 20 mgs. of valium. You DO NOT get high. I don't even get constipated. It will not affect your awareness or ability to drive etc. The pain pump is only for people who are not going to get better, who will never be pain free without medical intervention. I had to go through an examination by a number of specialist to be cleared for the pump. You are considered a palliative care patient. Not that your terminal but that you will have the situation your in for the rest of your life. Folks who get all moralistic about the use of pain meds are ill-informed and may have that opinion based on their own history of drug or alcohol use. I put up with a lot of that bull before I found the right doctors.

I would caution you that long term pain and depression go hand in hand and depression can be caused by pain as well as make your experience of pain much more severe. You must be willing to be treated for depression with drugs, talk therapy and bibliotherapy, (reading about depression and understanding the mechanisms). There should be NO value judgements made about depression. It is not a character flaw anymore than high blood pressure or a broken leg is. You don't need people judging you when you need medical care. They can be soul sucking leeches who have no idea how damaging their ideas can be.

You must also be willing to do everything you can to get and stay in good condition both to deal with pain and to deal with depression.

Make sure you get gene testing to determine which drug your body will metabolize best. Then make sure that drug is tested on you via a spinal injection. Don't just accept the first thing suggested because some other patient did well with it that your doctor treated in the past. A company called Gene Sight can furnish the test. Based on our genetic make up, different people metabolize drugs in different ways. The same testing will also predict which anti depressants you will tolerate best and get the most benefit from should you need that. Goggle Gene Sight and give them a call. Mayo also has a similar testing program but Gene Sight was the first and the most experienced.

I wish you good luck and I zsend you Love and Blessings.

W. Stephen Hodder, (wsh66)

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I think people have a hard time understanding how much pain we are in I'm on my 2nd pump and doing great. I had a hard time because of the use of Morphine . These pumps are not given out like candy, they are offered to patients in severe and unrelenting pain. At this point you have tried everything and there really nothing left to do. You become drug dependent not drug addicted, there is a big difference. You cannot control the amount of drugs that are dispensed the doctor has to increase the amount or approve any changes. At the time I received the pump I was taking the maximum amount of oral medications.
Your pain isn;t magically going to go away. Good Luck.

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Tell your husband it's your back and your pain.

The pain pump delivers such a small dose of meds there are virtually no side affects. I started at about 3.5 mg of hydromorphone per 24 hours. Five years later that is up to 3.9 mg. This replaced 21q0 mgs. of hydromorphone, 60 mgs. of oxycontin and 20 mgs. of valium. You DO NOT get high. I don't even get constipated. It will not affect your awareness or ability to drive etc. The pain pump is only for people who are not going to get better, who will never be pain free without medical intervention. I had to go through an examination by a number of specialist to be cleared for the pump. You are considered a palliative care patient. Not that your terminal but that you will have the situation your in for the rest of your life. Folks who get all moralistic about the use of pain meds are ill-informed and may have that opinion based on their own history of drug or alcohol use. I put up with a lot of that bull before I found the right doctors.

I would caution you that long term pain and depression go hand in hand and depression can be caused by pain as well as make your experience of pain much more severe. You must be willing to be treated for depression with drugs, talk therapy and bibliotherapy, (reading about depression and understanding the mechanisms). There should be NO value judgements made about depression. It is not a character flaw anymore than high blood pressure or a broken leg is. You don't need people judging you when you need medical care. They can be soul sucking leeches who have no idea how damaging their ideas can be.

You must also be willing to do everything you can to get and stay in good condition both to deal with pain and to deal with depression.

Make sure you get gene testing to determine which drug your body will metabolize best. Then make sure that drug is tested on you via a spinal injection. Don't just accept the first thing suggested because some other patient did well with it that your doctor treated in the past. A company called Gene Sight can furnish the test. Based on our genetic make up, different people metabolize drugs in different ways. The same testing will also predict which anti depressants you will tolerate best and get the most benefit from should you need that. Goggle Gene Sight and give them a call. Mayo also has a similar testing program but Gene Sight was the first and the most experienced.

I wish you good luck and I zsend you Love and Blessings.

W. Stephen Hodder, (wsh66)

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