-What is the Internal Infusion Pain Pump System:
The system consists
of several parts, three of which are placed ("implanted") inside your body: a pump, catheter, and access port. The three will
be inplanted during a surgical procedure. You will asked to return to your doctor's office for pump checkups and refills.
How Will Your Pump Be Implanted:
Your pump will be surgically inplanted. Your surgeon will make a pocket under
your skin which is large enough to hold your pump. The catheter will be inserted to carry the medication from the pump to
the proper location. Once the catheter and pump are in place, your surgeon will attach the catheter to the pump and close
the pocket. Remember if you have a side you like to sleep on tell the surgeon before the pump is implanted.
Your
pump is a round metal disk about one inch thick and three inches in diameter. It weighs about six ounces. The pump stores
and releases prescribed amounts of medication into your body.
In the center of your pump is a raised portion to help
your physician/nurse find the filling port. In the middle of thes filling port is a self-sealing, rubber septum. A needle
is inserted through your skin and through the septum to refill your pump.
The catheter is a flexible tube that delivers
the medicatiion from your pump to where it is needed.
The access port is a raised addition to your pump that allows
your doctor direct acess to your inplanted catheter so medications or sterile solutions can be sent directly through it, bypassing
your pump.
A computer-like programmer (like a big mouse used with a computer),also part of the system, is used by
your doctor/nurse during your refill and checkup sessions to painlessly communicate with your pump and set your prescription.
-What Your Pump Does
Your pump is designed to deliver a controlled amount of medication through a catheter
to the area in your body where it may be most effective. It treats you automatically during your normal activities. Because
the pump is internal, few people will notice it. Clothing should be worn losely with an elastic waist band that goes all the
way around the pants/skirt, or it should be made of strecth material so it will allow movement with out pain.
Your
pump has a memory that stores information of use to your physician. When your pump is refilled, your doctor will retrieve
that information with the programmer ( mouse ) to help adjust your prescription.
-Mental Attitude:
Some Pain
Clinics will have you evaluated by a psychiatrist, or a psychologist before doing the trial. This is to insure that you are
mentally prepared for the outcome of the implant. If not, then some other form of pain control will be better suited for you
at that time. Usually they will have you come back in six months and redo the tests. This gives you time to see a psychologist
and/or a psychiatrist, and work on living with chronic pain. Therapy is an important part of dealing with
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 | the constant pain and what it has done to your life.
Chapter two:
With in the next three to four years we will see the next generation
of Internal Infusion Pain Pumps. They will be able to hold twice as much medication as they do now. This gives
us the ability to double the time between each refill, and it also alows the pump to be programed to have the ability
to give us the use of the bolus.
A bolus is like someone giving you an extra shot of the
medication that you have in your pump when you have break through pain. It will be determined by your doctor as to how
many you are allowed each day, and how much is in each bolus. It is done like this so that we can have the medication
when we need it, and so we will not be able to give ourselfes to much at one time. The prototype for the bolus uses a device about the size of a t.v. remote. You can go to medtronic and read more
about the new things to come.......
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Intrathecal Drug Delivery Guide Lines:
 Intrathecal drug delivery is designed to reduce pain by delivering pain medication to the intrathecal space surrounding in
the spinal cord. Because this therapy delivers pain medication directly to the receptors in the spinal cord, smaller doses
of medication are required to gain relief.
The system consist of a pump and catheter, both of which
are surgically placed under the skin. The pump is implanted in the abdominal area, just above or below the beltline. A thin,
flexible tube, called a catheter, connects to the pump and is tunneled under the skin to the site where medication is to be
delivered. The pump releases the medication at the set rate, and the medication flows from the pump, through the catheter
to the site of delivery in the intrathecal space.
Patient Profile
People with certain kinds of chronic pain may be candidates
for intrathecal drug delivery therapy. Click here to learn about types of pain treated. The following critera are used to
determine whether or not intrathecal drug delivery is appropriate for chronic pain sufferers:
- More conservative therapies have failed to adequately
help the pain.
- An observable pathology exists that is associated with
the pain.
- Further traditional surgical intervention is not indicated.
- No serious untreated drug habituation for your pain
condition exists.
- Psychological evaluation and clearance for implantation
have been received.
- No medical issues exist that would present problems
with doing the surgery.
- The screening test is successful.
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I thought that this would be the last entry I would make on subject but you never know! About four months ago I went to get
my internal pain pump filled, and everthing seemed to go all right. As the month went by I had considerable more pain in
my bladder, but I had a Sinus infection, bladder infection, and stomach but. I thought that the other problems were causing
me to have the extra pain. And on a scale of 1 to 10 it was a 9 to 10. I went to my next apt. and found out that they had
made a mistake and that the pump was at half of what it should be.
It was an eye openier for me!!!! Now I know how much the pump really helped with my pain. I honestly do not know how
you can live with the pain with just oral pain killers. It takes both for me to live. If I had it to do all over again I
would opt for the internal pain pump becuase you can get so much more medication in the nerve then you can by mouth. Please
take a few minutes and read this and all the information you can find at www.medtronic.com. I only hope that one day we will
all be pain free, but until that day why not use what God and Scince has provided for us.
*I hope that you find an answer to the constant pain that
you are dealing with. The internal pain pump is not an answer for everyione. For those that can not use a pain pump I pray
that you will find something that will keep your pain under control. After all we only want a chance at having some part,
if not all, of a normal life.
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