Hi everyone,
On Friday I had my surgery to implant a medine pump in my stomach that injects a small amt. of MS Contin (1 mg per day on a continuous basis) directly into my spine thru a catheter attached to the pump which is inserted under my skin & goes around my side to my spine. The surgery took about 1 to 1 1/2 hrs. and I was kept in ICU for about 15 hrs. before being moved to a regular room. When they woke me up in ICU, I was in bad pain because they don't give any pain meds until they wake you up. I then rec'd demerol directly into the IV in my wrist & I had instant complete pain relief. I ran into problems though when they next switched to giving me 4 mg of morphine for pain instead of more Demerol. When the morphine wore off, I started to have a headache & asked the nurse if I was getting what is called a rebound headache because my body was craving more morphine (I didn't get any answer to my question), instead they gave me 6 mg of morphine. When they went to move me to my regular room 3 hrs. later, I got extremely dizzy on the ride there & when I had to sit up to move from the bed I travled in to the bed in the new room, my head was spinning & splitting open so bad I threw up. I ended up throwing up all day because I had too much morphine in my system. I had the same reaction when I had surgery 10 years ago & I had a morphine pump. I had to stay in the hospital an extra day so they could flush the drug out of my system thru the IV bag. During that time, I could have no more pain meds for my incisions, so as long as I laid still & did not move, I had no pain. The next day, they gave me 2 Vicodin & I have felt fantastic ever since getting a prescription for those.
Let me say at this point that the day I went to get the surgery, my Fibro pain was so bad, that I almost asked for a wheelchair when I got to the admitting dept. After the surgery, I have had no Fibro pain whatsoever because the pump has been working since it was implanted. I plan to return to work tomorrow (Tues.) because I feel so good. I just have to be careful not to lift, pull or push anything heavy for 6 weeks so that I can heal properly. I have a desk job that involves typing & other administrative duties so I should have no problems going back to work. My incision on my stomach is longer than I think was really necessary - 4 inches. I read a post from another person with an implant & their incision was only 2 1/2 inches. The incision along my spine is 2 inches. The dr. used metal staples which come out next Tues. & I already know that their removal will be a painful pinch for each one since I have had metal staples for another surgery once before - but it is a small price to pay for no longer having to be in pain on a daily basis. Since I do not have that much morphine being pumped into my spine on a daily basis, I only have to go every 3 mos. to get the pump refilled. A round flat piece of plastic the size of the pump is layed over top of the pump with a tiny hole cut out where the dr. puts the needle in to refill the pump. They say it is a painless procedure & for me it will be since prior abdominal surgery left a big portion of my stomach with no feeling. The med dozage can be reprogamed thru a remote control the dr. has if you are not getting enough or getting too much. It should only take a few visits to get your dozage at the right amt. & from there it stays the same since you don't build a tolerance when meds are injected directly into your spine vs. meds that travel thru your bloodstream & across your brain by taking pills.
I am thrilled that I was able to get the pump implant & would do it again w/out any hestiation. I will post an update every month for a couple months to let you know how successful the pump is for me. My dr. said all his patients with one absolutely love it and it works great for them. I want to mention that from the literature I read on the pump, over 25,000 people are now using one & I would encourage anyone who has tried other remedies that don't work to look into getting a pump.
Al, if you read this maybe this would help you to.
We are going to the docs this week to see if Gary couldbe a candidate. They arn't to reasuring thought due to all the problems he has in his spine. But, our fingures are crossed. We have to go to a Pain clinic at a cancer center.
Kim,
I hope that Gary is a good candidate for the pain pump & that he will not be afraid to have it implanted. Let me know how the visit goes with his dr. this week.
I don't know how hard it would be for others to find a pain mgmt. specialist who implants them. I think some ins. progams won't allow people to go to a specialist without a referral and their dr. won't give them one. My ins. plan lets me go to any dr. I want that is listed in our provider list no matter what type of dr. they are (which is considered "in-network"). If I go to a dr. not on the list ("out-of-network"), then I have to pay a much bigger portion of my bill & I have to pay everything up front instead of only my portion owed at the backend after the ins. co. pays their portion.
As I said in my first update after the surgery, all my Fibro pain is gone. Something I didn't mention is that I also have a rotator cuff injury on my right shoulder from a fall I had at work in July. I will being having surgery on that in March/April. Between the pump and the Vicodin I am taking for my 2 incisions, the pain in my shoulder will not go away. It's weird how njecting morphine straight into my spine eliminates the muscle/joint/skeletal pain of FMS, but not my incision or shoulder pain.
If anyone from Houston is interested in checking out this surgery, I will be happy to give you my dr's name & no. if you email me at ******Even if he is not on your provider list, he may know other drs. in his field who also implants the pumps who might be on your list.
Please do not post your emails
[This message has been edited by Skeetercatt (edited 08-15-2002).]
Gary had an epidural block a few days ago. The doctors didn't give him much hope that this would help and almost didn't do it right at the time it was tobe done. He is so upset that it didn't work. Is that the first step you went through or was it something else?
He has seen 3 doctors in the past 2 weeks and another this coming week. His pain is so hard to get under control. We talked to all about the pump and they wern't sure.
Kim,
Sorry I haven't checked the board for a few days or I would have replied sooner. I'm not sure if the block Gary had would have had a similar result as my test since they injected directly into his spine for his block. All my test involved was injecting 1 mg. of morphine directly into my spine in the middle. The results were instantaneous. I'm not sure where they directed the needle to hit once in his spine (nerves vs. something else in there) and what area of his body they were attempting to block pain from. You mentioned his drs. weren't sure about the pump. Is that because they don't know much about it and have never done one? If you call the mgf. of the pump (Medtronic) at 1-800-510-6735, they can give you a list of drs. names in your area that use their product. If I ever moved away from Houston, I would have to call them to find a dr. and/or clinic that installs them so they could do refills of my meds. The drs. who install them have to have a computer supplied by the mfr. to operates the pump to adjust the dozage and they need the plastic template that lays on top of the implanted pump to guide the needle in to refill the pump.
I do want to tell you that on my 1st followup visit to get my staples out, I asked the dr. how much the pumpl costs since he never mentioned a price. He said it was around $10,000. Imagine my shock when I got my explanation of benefits from my ins. showing it cost $20,140. I was absolutely floored. That is only the price of the pump, not to mentioned the cost for the 2 drs. who operated (1 does the stomach surgergy and 1 does the spinal surgery), the anthestiologist, ICU room, meds, OR charge, etc. Also, the for the test, I was in ICU overnight and there was a dr. fee of $525. So for anyone who doesn't have good ins. or isn't super wealthy, the pump may be totally out of the question. The only good thing I found out related to costs is that I have the lastest model pump that lasts 5-7 yrs. before being replaced instead of the old one which had a lifespan of 3-5 yrs. I asked why they couldn't replace the battery and I was told that the pump is made of titanium steel that is completely sealed because if my body fluids were ever to seep into the pump the battery would get corroded and then the corrosion would in turn, leak into my blood stream and kill me - so that made good sense to me. I was also told that they are working on a rechargable model (which I'm sure will cost a lot more) and I am hoping when the battery in my 1st pump goes, I will be able to get one of those.
I am feeling good with the pump so far and as I am taking less pain meds for my incision pain and can feel some Fibro pain still, they have adjusted my dosage up twice. The 1st time it went from 1 mg. to a whopping 1.15 mg and the 2nd time (yesterday) to a whopping 1.30 mg. I told him during the test that although 1 mg. took away most of my pain, that I felt I would need a tad more than that. I could feel the difference immediately yesterday when he increased the dosage, but my gut tells me that I will probably need about 2 mg. It is standard for them to increase dosages from .15 to 20 mgs., but I think it should be more along the line of a .50 (1/2) mg. Other than a small area of soreness and stiffness by both incisions, I am getting around great and everyone comments on how great and how alert I look and sound. I had to laugh the 1st few times I heard that since I am still taking 2 Vicodin twice a day for incision pain.
Great Results from Pump Implant 
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