If you or somebody you know is struggling with muscle spasms and it’s affecting your quality of life and your ability to get out and do stuff, you may want to read this.
I broke my neck 11 years ago and pretty much ever since I struggled with severe muscle spasms. They are extremely painful. I mentioned it to my pain specialist and told him I wanted to possibly get a baclofen pump. He told me he was against it and said it’s not really worth the risk.
For 10 years I took oral medications to relieve my spasms. They would only work for a few hours at a time and I could only take a certain amount each day. This left me having horrible spasms. I almost couldn’t even leave the house without taking medication first. Otherwise I would have spasms every time I hit a bump, if you hit the brakes too hard, accelerate too fast, even just moving my arms would cause them.
I finally decided I would bring it back up 10 years later and see what he thought. Long story short within the next few months I would have surgery to get a baclofen pump implanted in my abdomen.
To help you understand what it is, it is a reservoir that holds medication, specifically Baclofen, and it has a built-in pump and a catheter to direct where the medicine goes. They implant the pump in your abdomen and run the catheter directly into your spinal cord and it drips medicine directly on the spinal cord.
At first everything went well but I ended up having one complication. The catheter pulled out of my spinal cord because I wasn’t careful enough for the first six weeks. I had a second surgery to get it repositioned and it has been great since.
It has absolutely changed my life and I highly recommend it if you’re struggling really bad. I can do so much more and go so many more places than I used to be able to. Life is so much better without spasms. I wish I would have done it years ago.
I used to have to take 40 mg of Baclofen orally four times a day. With the pump I don’t take any and I don’t get spasms. Right now it is set to deliver 120 micrograms of Baclofen in a 24-hour period. Put that in perspective 20 mg is the equivalent 20,000 micrograms. So I was taking 40,000 micrograms of back left hand four times a day or 160,000 micrograms. With the pump only 120 micrograms.
There are some risks but to me they outweigh the benefits and quality of life Improvement. Not only do I benefit from it but so do my caregivers and the people that help me. It also cuts down on sores and everything else that comes with muscle spasms.
Once every couple months I have to visit with my doctor. He has a little device that he scans it with to check the battery level, medication level, and dosage. When it gets low on medication they just use a syringe with a needle and they are able to fill it up. One downside is that when the battery dies it requires replacement but it’s good for several years.
I hope this helps you or somebody you know on the journey through life! Please like comment and share with the world. Thank you thank you thank you!
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