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Three weeks ago, I started a trial of the intrathecal morphine pump, desperate for better pain relief and quality of life after 6 nightmare years of chronic pain. I was taking 100 mg methadone per day and my pain was about a 6 if I did nothing to worsen it.
During the 1-week trial, I experienced no pain relief with the pain, but was able to reduce my methadone use 50%. I was worried about having the pump installed since the doctor said that almost everyone experiences significant pain relief during the trial. Still, he said he was confident he could get me better pain relief so I went ahead.
Two weeks later, I am 80% off of methadone but have no pain improvement and am on 1/2 of the highest morphine dose possible with the pump. People tell me to be patient, but I am beginning to lose all hope that this treatment will work for me. It seems that every time I hope for something to help, it fails. I am sinking into a deep depression and would appreciate any words of comfort from those with intrathecal pain pumps.
Hello, sorry to hear about your situation. I have had a medtronics pump for 4 years. I also started of on and then off morphine, to dilaudid. It 10x as potent. As a word of advice, make sure your concentration is not greater then 10mg/ml ,and your daily dosage doesn't exceed 15mg per day. This can lead to granulomas on the tip of your cathder. There is a recall on the medtronics pumps, you should go to there site and see if yours is on there. Also the only to drugs that have ever been tested in the pump are morphine, baclofen, and buprivicane. Hope this helps, k
Question...how can you reduce your methadone by 80% with no pain improvement? Why did you reduce your methadone, if you have no pain improvement???
At any rate, I, too, have the metronic morphine pump, 8 mg/day, and although it does not (and is NOT guaranteed to) take 100% of my pain away, it takes away at least 50% and has allowed me ONE breakthrough pain med/day (I'm allowed up to 4).
True, I use a walker to help support my back when it hurts, but often a breakthrough pain med will take care of it. The walker is used always when I'm doing a lot of walking...like going to a concert, a hoedown (c/w event downtown Detroit); an all day lobby day at our capitol, etc. I don't use it around the house or running into or out of stores.
There is also a major discussion about the medtronic pump under "general discussion" (from main board menu), subtopic "willing to share..." There are a lot of replies and a lot of pros and cons mentioned. Below is the link:
Chronic Pain Community 
