Re: Newbie introduction for Dave (lfde58), long message

[Guest guest]

Hi Dave,

Welcome to the group. I too am a fellow spinal person. They've done 5

surgeries to fix the problem but now I have chronic pain from all the fixin'.

Of

course it's more complicated than that and then you add in a mix of other

diagnosis' and there you have it.

This is a great group of people who have so much information and give so

much support. I understand your concern about the amount of meds your using

and

there is always a point where there is no higher dosage. In my case they

started playing around with the other medications to come up with a mix that

works for me.

I grew up around the area your in. Born and raised in Menlo Park. We moved

up north to the wine country for many years and only recently moved here to

N. Carolina. It's beautiful here, but I do miss Calif,.

Hope to see more of you here on the list.

Kathleen in NC

[Guest guest]

Kathleen<<< I understand your concern about the amount of meds your using

and

there is always a point where there is no higher dosage. In my case they

started playing around with the other medications to come up with a mix

that

works for me.>>>

Hi Dave and welcome to the group. What Kathleen said above makes very good

sense but there are a few other options. Has your Dr. mentioned the SCS or

the Intrathecal pump? The SCS is sorta like an internal tens unit and it

works best on leg pain...not so much on back pain. You usually still have

to take oral meds but it can be a good thing to work with the meds so you

don't have to go up another dose.

Then there is the pump which is an internally implanted device which

delivers pain meds (and sometimes other meds too) directly into the

intrathecal space around the spine. The thing about the pump is that you

use like 1/300th the amount of meds as you would orally so you can imagine

how much farther that would give you to go on meds.

I have both so if you have any questions about them just ask and I will try

to help. Also if you want to read up on them more go to www.medtronics.com

as that is who makes them and they have great info there.

Hope this helped and hope you get a lot out of the group here...it is great.

Take care,

Ann/Pa

[Guest guest]

Ann,

Yes, I have had a Medtronic Intrathecal Pump with Dilaudid for about

1.5 years. So far it is the best solution for pain for me.

Unfortunately my dose has increased to the point that I can't raise

it more as I become more tolerant to the meds. I recently was in the

hospital to try Clonidine and/or Baclofen. But, neither worked for

me. Now I am hopeing for ziconotide, but its too early. For now I am

doing OK, not great, but better than in the last 4.5 years.

My pain MD said that he couldn't use the stimulator on me because I

have pain in both my lumbar and thoracic back. He said it would help

with one or the other, but not both. Something about the electrode

placement along my spine.

Have you tried a drug holiday (to reduce tolerance) since you got

your pump? Perhaps that's not an issue with your meds. I think that

it is in my future, and it scares me. I don't know how I will get

along without strong pain meds during the break. My therapist says

not to worry about the future, but I do.

Anyway, Thanks for caring,

Dave

Ann/Pa wrote:

Has your Dr. mentioned the SCS or the Intrathecal pump?