As promised, I said that I would write about the results of my morphine pump trial. This was to be a 7 day trial that began at 8:30 a.m. on August 30, 2007. The trial involves a catheter being placed in the spine and an external pump that I would carry around in a fanny pack that would pump a regulated dose of morphine into my spinal column every hour.

Let me preface my personal circumstances that may or may not apply to someone else's trial. First of all, I have MS. But I do walk. My left leg has drop-foot. I wear an AFO on that leg and favor my right leg to walk around. Both legs are somewhat weak. Secondly, I had found oral opiates and morphine to have too many side effects that I couldn't deal with. Therefore, I took no oral pain meds prior to the pump trial.

My personal experience was both good and bad during the trial. Here is my story.

This was to be an outpatient procedure. I was awake, with a slight sedative while they inserted the catheter into my spinal column. I didn't feel much of anything and was surprised when they said that it was all in. Next they moved me to a gurney in a recovery holding area. A woman from the home health care service came in to hook up the actual pump to the catheter and to start the morphine flowing into my spine. The external pump was about 5"X 8" and about 2" thick. I was to carry the pump in a fanny pack as I moved about for one week.

I did not recognize it immediately, but the initial load is where things began to go wrong for me. Keep in mind that I had not been taking any pain killers and had no tolerance built up to morphine.

I do not know how to explain the morphine measurements, in the correct terms. But, I do know the numbers. The pump programs in what they call an "initial loading dose". That number was 2.00 in my case. After that, the pump was set to deliver .25 every hour. I was supposed to rest on the gurney for about 5 hours before going home. My daughter showed up to take me home. They told her to watch me at home and make sure that I was breathing OK. If I began to feel bad, I should go to a local emergency room. I told them that I was already feeling bad. I was clammy and shivering. I was very thirsty for something sugary. They gave me orange juice. About 2 p.m., they decided to send me to their emergency room. I began to throw up many times on the gurney ride to the ER. I continued to vomit in the holding area of the ER. A lot of this is blank time to me. But my daughter told me that nurses came in at least 5 times to inject some medicine into my IV that they use on chemo patients to help them with nausea. Nothing seemed to be working. She was really scared. I was not completely with it, so I don't recall everything. My daughter said that doctors were consulting and asking me questions, but that is a blank to me. They were going to let me go home but they finally admitted me to the hospital about 12:15 a.m..

Friday, I woke up to a liquid breakfast and lunch. At some point, I asked for food and this calmed my stomach somewhat. The pain in my back was gone but I was groggy and tired. Later that day, the woman from the home healthcare came to reduce the morphine hourly dose to .125/hr.. As a side issue, I was having a very difficult time walking. My right leg was not working properly and my bladder urgency was greater than usual. I was in a teaching hospital in Chicago. They sent in many neurologists, interns, and students to investigate if I was having a MS exacerbation. After two days of CAT scans, MRI's, and Neurological workups, they determined that I was not having a MS attack.