I had a spinal fusion in February of 2000. That operation failed to clear my pain. They used my bone from my illiac crest (hip) and that in it's self is painful all the time. Then I find I have osteopenia. I'm a sixty-seven year old man that climbed poles all my life as a lineman. Always worked hard, loved my wife and children and was never sick. Now, what a change! anyway, now I had a morphine pump installed in Oct 2006 to ease the pain. I was taking eight Norco a day for my pain and that was not really enough. They bumped the pump on a scheduled basis until I got to 3.18mg per day continuous. That is a relatively small dose but I was still having to take the same Norco each day to function. My pain specialist thought I was abusing the oral meds and decided to take me off them completely. Needless to say, I wound up in the ER with withdrawls and severe pain like an 11 on the scale of 1-10. The surgeon who placed the pump decided to do a CT, which the pain doc never suggested, and guess what? The morphine was pooled up under my skin the size of a hockey puck. Seriously bad news. So this March I went in and had the catheter repaired. Then they start me back on 1 mg per day of morphine but this time without any oral meds and I tell you, I hurt so bad and these doctors are only concerned about the pump and it's functions. Then I no sooner had that done when I heard about the Class 1 recall from Medtronics on the pumps of which one of mine are listed. I know, I'm jumping all around in this post to you all but I have to keep getting up to relieve the pain as I can not sit more than a few minutes unsupported. The class 1 recall is not about recalling the pumps but is about the distal tip of the catheter which can and has formed a mass in the spine. They even mention serious injury or death but guess what? They leave it up to the physicians to moniter any possible growths. Don't get me wrong, I trust my doctors but they are human and as busy as they get it could get overlooked down the road sometime and then it's too late.
Well if you've read this far you are most likely half asleep. Thanks for taking the time to let me vent as I am home alone except for the cat. The wife lives is Portland and comes home a couple of day a month due to the tight budget but that's a different story for another day.
Oh yes, my question! Is there any surgeons who are willing to remove these pumps as mine when asked, talk all around the subject and even suggest trying new drugs but won't commit to excising the pump?
