Intrathecal Drug Delivery Pump for Pain Control

[Freespin 71]

I gotta say after reading thru these post they scare the hell out of me , one I'm not one who enjoys trial and error with Dr.s . Two I do know there are many risk associated with having a pain pump.
I see alot of you have severe spasms where I do not my issues are more severe central neuropathic pain coupled with a none union . Lately my pain is getting to the point where I can sit up for a few hours but after awhile my whole right side down into my butt starts hurting to where I'm unabe too sit.
Neuropathic speaking I have severe neuro pain from mid back on down especially around my waist and it is getting increasingly hard to cope with but the idea of a pump scares the hell out of me

[metronycguy]

i am able to hold off the pump for a while, i have a new pain doc , there are very few pain docs that are prescribing opiates due to the media coverage. I dont know a out the increase in od's and what is causing it, but it is having a severe affect on legitimate pain patients.
Soon there will be a backlash by pan patients, i hope there will be or , we will all be forced to undergo surgery and implants , due to doctors fear of losing license or being imprisoned for prescribing opioids.

[metronycguy]

what do people mean by "pain"? Both of my legs feel like: remember when you'd have a leg fall asleep but you'd ignore it instead of stretching it out immediately so then it would get to that really crazy tingling/burning sensation? I find it hard to call that pain but it interferes w my ability to relax, think, do things. Is that "central pain" and I'd love pump remedies. So far, oral low dose naltrexone and low dose amitriptyline, marijuana, NSAIDs haven't worked. I hate to go full dose cymbalta, lyrica or opiates.

that is pain, it doesn't fir the standard definition , but it definitely is pain. I remember when first injured explaining to the nurse this feeling i had in my feet, i said it wasn't really pain, it felt like when you got real cold feet, frozen feet from hiking,shoveling snow, and your foot would start thawing out, you would get this pins and needles, weird feeling, like a frostbitten frozen foot which = neuropathic pain,
all this stuff is true pain.

[Sheri]

So, medtronycguy, did you ever try low dose amitryptoline or marijuana or cymbalta? I can totally relate to your frostbitten description! Spot on! Freezing and burning at once.

[metronycguy]

i tried low dose amitripyline was back in the beginning, 2001 era, it did work well , helped a lot with sleep. MJ i cant try unless my doc prescribes it, or authorizes my use of it. Cybalra , i tried but i got some side effects, i would try again if side efects would stop.
Nucynta was the last med i tried that really gave me strange reactions, it was powerful as a pain med, but it made me dizzy and off balanced

[Madnance]

So many helpful comments here. Thank you. I could not bring myself to doing the intathecal pump. Continued on same mix of meds (10 mg butrans, 60 mg cymbalta, gabapentin, tramadol, baclofen). But my dr now has me trying to get off opioids so next will try naltrexone at 2 mg. I will feel very fortunate if it helps.

[August West]

My pain was secondary to spasms. Pain meds did little to no good. The baclofen pump works well. The spasms were practically gone by the time I woke up from the pump implant operation. Once the spasms went down, the pain decreased significantly. The pain took longer to decrease, maybe a few months. Spasms consumes oxygen and severe spasms can consume enough oxygen to the point of fatigue. If you push through the fatigue, the result is pain. In other words, spasms can quickly cause you to be tired and eventually cause you to be in pain. Baclofen is all I needed. But the pills didn't work. I need the pump. It's restored my quality of life.

[metronycguy]

havent had it implanted yet, the methadone was increased to 40mg a day ,which took xare of most of the daily breakthrough paiin, reduced the intake ot tramadol to sometimes zero in 2 or 3 days and drastically reduced the., this in turn reduced my hot ,heat sweating from serotonin type effects, the reduction of sweating really improved my life, also constipation was reduced,

the new scs ganglion root will be tried first.

[paraparajumper]

Now, if I might add a question to your thread, what do people mean by "pain"? Both of my legs feel like: remember when you'd have a leg fall asleep but you'd ignore it instead of stretching it out immediately so then it would get to that really crazy tingling/burning sensation? I find it hard to call that pain but it interferes w my ability to relax, think, do things. Is that "central pain" and I'd love pump remedies. So far, oral low dose naltrexone and low dose amitriptyline, marijuana, NSAIDs haven't worked. I hate to go full dose cymbalta, lyrica or opiates.

If you're asking what people mean by "pain," you are one of the lucky ones. You have no idea the type of torture many of us go through; literal torture.

I'm getting a pain pump next week.

[paraparajumper]

Well I'm hating my life right now. Pump implanted Friday, in extreme pain, already titrated up once, zero nerve pain relief.

2mg Bupivicaine / 0.2mg Dilaudid

Trying not to second guess and hate myself for making this decision to get this implanted. I hope this gets better.