Pain Pump Surgery Scheduled for Wednesday

Hi Everyone,

The weekend remained challenging for Scott, as he is still struggling with the pain.  They increased meds and are trying new meds, but things still aren't working.  Additionally, his left leg is still swollen quite a bit.  As I mentioned before, the Doctors think it's a side effect of radiation and will go away soon.

I told you in this post about the "pain pump".  This is properly called an Intrathecal Pain Pump The amount of medicines he’s on is so high and they are causing lots of side effects (like the twitching).  The advantage of the pain pump is that it will deliver the medicine directly into the spine.  The ratio of medicine needed from the pump vs orally is 1 to 300.  In other words, if he’s taking 300mg of Morphine right now, only 1mg will need to be delivered via the pump.  His dosage will be higher than 1mg and will likely be a combination of medicines, but I’m not sure exactly what yet.  He will be able to control the pump and take as much medicine as he needs, but it will be metered so he doesn’t accidently give himself too much at a time.  He will have to go in periodically to have it refilled.  It’s controlled by a computer.  If not for this scenario, I would think it’s actually pretty interesting – here’s a good internet explanation:  http://www.mayfieldclinic.com/PE-PUMP.htm

The surgery itself will be much like the surgery in which they implanted his port.  It usually takes about an hour and a half, but may take longer.  It’s recommended we act quickly on this, as his counts are fine, no fevers, no infections, etc – if those are present he cannot go through the surgery.  There are normal surgical risks, but nothing uncommon or extreme.  He will be under general anesthesia for the surgery.The benefits are that he will hopefully see some relief immediately – hopefully as much as 30-50% reduction in pain.  It will also eliminate many of the side effects from the high doses of opiods he’s getting.  It is not going to get rid of the pain 100%, but we still hope that between this, the inflammation from radiation getting better, and starting chemo again will all come together to provide him much relief.  None of this is an absolute science and every person handles these things differently.  Hopefully, Scott will be able to come home soon after this is done.

I will do a post tomorrow night to let you know all is okay.  Keep your prayers, postive thougths and crossed fingers coming.  :)

Love to all,

Amy