Meditronic Morphine Pump Implant

[hermit]

Hi, everyone, glad to see this forum back online. well after years of chronic back an leg an feet pain ,todays the day, .... im getting a morphine pump implant this afternoon. ill be back with the results soon as i can. i have high hopes, but if i get even a modest reduction in pain... ill be tickled pink.

sincerly, hermit

[sallyb]

Hi, Hermit. I have always thought of morphine as a last resort drug. Guess that shows how little I know. Looking forward to hearing about how it does.

sally

[basic]

I have had the pump for the almost 4 years now. It saved my life! I did end up having to replace mine beacause I ended up having to go for refills every 20 days. So he put the larger pump in. I went from morphine to dilaudid, too. Now I am only having to go every 2 months. I hope it works as good for you as it does for me. I am stil looking for a surgeon but with no luick.

[joy]

Hello everyone. Glad to hear that the pumps work for some. I will have to rely on medication and my old Tens machine. I won't find anyone that will place a machine in me since I do not heal well because of my peripheral neuropathy. Be sure and let us know how you do with your implant hermit. Hope it works really good for you!

[Maggie]

I had mine for 5 years and if I had only had lumbar pain I would have been happy with it. Unfortunately, my migraines and cervical pain wasn't helped by it and my PM didn't believe in giving additional meds for those problems.

I am in a small town and have no variety of medical help to choose from. I hope you do good with your surgery.
Maggie

[Weedhopper]

Hi there,

I have had my pump now for five years and I wouldn't give it up for anything, it has helped me so, so much. Actually, I am on my second pump already. I had four great years with the first one, then out of the blue became very ill and it actually didn't dawn on me for quite a bit that it was my pump as the culprit, trying to convince my Dr. and staff was not an easy feat either, as I had NONE of the "ordinary" symptoms that most people show when dealing with a pump problem. Finally after months of trying to get them to do a dye study on the pumps catheter, they agreed to do it, telling me it was basically to finally rule out that it was not my pump causing my sickness.

I was beaming with the biggest smile, actually elated when I was told that I indeed did have a leaking catheter near the pump, and it looked like the catheter was still implanted into my spine up on the screen when they did the test, but when they got my into surgery they discovered that it was not intact, it was completely pulled out of the spine and all shredded up to bits, telling them it had been that way for some time. I did suffer withdrawl from the high dosage of pump meds, but it wasn't nearly as severe as it should have been due to the fact that I am still allowed Oxycontin for breakthru pain, and it also takes care of my cervical pain which my pump does not cover. I had this surgery done a year ago this past May and felt great for exactly five weeks until I got the old feelings of withdrawl and pump problems all over again. I said nothing for over a week as I wanted to be sure this is what it was. I could tell the meds were leaking into my bodily tissue once again, my hair and skin had "a medicinal odor" that I could never be rid of, no matter how many times I showered in one day, and I had a taste all the time also. These same issues I had the first time, along with many other issues. I called the Doc and they got me in right away to check things out and once again I was correct and had to undergo surgery to fix the problem. This time (five weeks after first surgery) the catheter was blocked at the top and no meds were getting into my spine, yet they were going somewhere, leaking into my body. So, once again I was feeling good, was a little more sore than the first time, but expected that to happen. I didn't even make it to the appointment to have my staples taken out when I suspected once more it was the same old song and dance happening to me and I was getting no pump meds. I told my PA when I went in to get the staples taken out, thinking that she would let the Dr. know when she next saw him and they'd set up another test to check things out, but I never heard anything from them. I held off and held off as long as I could, but it got to the point to where I had no doubt there was a problem. Four or five weeks went by this time before the Dr. knew about it, (got in trouble for that one!!)and sure enough, it was blocked once more. So, by then we were into September when I had the third surgery. The catheter was moved higher up, above my cages, in hopes that the meds would be able to get through the catheter. If that surgery didn't take, I problaby would have lost my pump for awhile and had to go through another spinal surgery before I could get it back. They were trying to avoid that as much as possible. I had my mind made up that this would have been the last surgery for me, I physically couldn't handle another one, three in twelve weeks time was too much. It took forever to heal and get any kind of strength back. I am no where near to being active like I was, somewhat before. I cannot get up in the morning for the life of me, I am just so different than I was before all of the surgeries, BUT... I am proud to say that Sept. 07th was my one year anniversary and all is well as far as the catheter issues go!!!

My pain before the pump was extremely severe, close to 10 at all times, from my bra line down to my toes and I was bedridden. I am sitting here now and my pain can be rated at 1-2, because of the pump. It has served me very well. I have Fentanyl in it, and at my last refill they decided to try and add clodidine also at a very small amount. It seems to be just fine.

In my opinion, it is not only having the pump implanted that has saved me and helped so much with my pain. The pump is nothing without a good Dr. on your side, this is the MOST IMPORTANT FACTOR. If you don't have a good Doc titrating that pump aggressively to meet your pain needs, there is no use having one implanted. I cannot tell you how many poor souls out there have a pump, and are stuck with a Dr. who will not raise that pump past 1.5mgs or 2.0mgs per day ever, what good is having the pump if they are not going to utilize it to it's fullest potential, they don't even give it a chance. My starting dose was more than that for crying out loud, and my Dr. was agressive with increases. When we got to what he felt was too high of a dosage on a certain med, then we switched to another med, each one being better for me, with less side effects. Some also refuse to give oral break-thru meds, which is again sad. Some Drs. tell their patients that the pump should take care of all of their pain, which in some may be true, but if you have someone like me with problems that are severe in all three areas of the spine and into the hips and legs, there is no way it's all covered by just the pump. My cervical issues, which include herniated discs that cause problems into my shoulder, arm, hand and fingers are not covered, and I must use oral meds, and have had blocks as once again they do no want to operate on any area of my spine unless it is causing bladder/bowel issues, or severe neurological issues.

If you did get your pump implanted, the biggest thing at first is no bending, lifting or twisting, you want to let your catheter and pump get settled into place, and get the tissue built up around it, so it's socked in nicely. Just take things easy. Get yourself one of those grabbers, they are great for picking things up. Wear a binder if at all possible.

You should join us over at Pumpsters, the group is great, one of the best I've ever been part of, lot's of great people who either have or are thinking of getting a pump in the near future. The address to join is
pumpsters-subscribe@onelist.com that will get you signed up and then you'll be given the regular address to read or join in from there...
I wish you the best, and if you have any questions, ask away. Sorry this got kinda long, but I wanted to let you know that even if for some reason a problem were to crop up, as with me, it can be fixed and turn out to be successful in taking care of horrendous pain.
The pump should be considered only as a "last resort", after everything else has been tried and failed, most good PM Doc's will tell you this. Please make sure you know you've got a good Dr. before going this route, it means everything.

KM

[kennethhoff]

I subscribed to the forum you suggested. Thank you!
I would like to know more about the pumps. What meds can be put in them? morphine only? fentynal, dilaudid, etc... Morphine never helped me orally. Also, size. Does the pump bulge or show tremedously? What restrictions are there after the procedure? how long is the recovery? How long was surgery? recommedations when choosing a doc?
Thanks again.
Ken

[hermit]

hello, will i didnt get back here sooner because i came down with flu an also was outta town, anyways... i was mistakeing , i thought i was getting pump implant that day on the 3rd, instead i was giveing a trial on a external pump,and i did better on dilaudid than morphine,but i was happy with results . im getting IMPLANT, "for sure this time, LOL" on 10/25/06, just a week away. i cant wait. thanks for everyones feedback.... and thanks for that "pumpster"link weedhopper,
ill let everyone know how it went next week
sincerly , hermit

[hermit]

hello, well i got pump implant today, surgery didnt hurt much at all, an didnt even have to stay the night. my doctor took off after surgery so i didnt get to see her. i guess its on a low dose because i dont feel any differant , next week when i go in for office visit she will start adjusting the dose on it i guess. she said it would take awhile to fiqure out best settings for me. so ill let you all know how things comeing alone. at least the "implant" part is over. it feels sore, but not real bad , ill know more tonight after sleeping with it.

sincerly,.... hermit

[hermit]

hello, well so far so good, i feel GREAT, we stll adjusting the dose, but i feel WONDERFUL, wish id had this done years ago, i very,very happy .
sincerly, hermit