Marcaine pain pumps

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Anniekay80
Anniekay80 Member Posts: 127
edited January 2016 in Surgery - Before, During, and After

My PS placed a marcaine pain pump after my BMX with TE placement. Weirdest feeling ever at first. I didn't truly appreciate it until it was empty and therefore removed. Now I'm wondering if anybody else had one of these and more importantly did your doctor place one after the TE exchange to implant surgery?

I'm assuming from reading through these boards that the exchange surgery is almost nothing when compared to the pain after mastectomy. But, even though I won't be having my exchange surgery for a few months, I'm curious if the doctor will use the marcaine pain pump again. It really did diminish the amount of pain I felt and therefore lessened the amount of narcotics needed. I see the PS this coming week so I'll get an answer tthen, but I'm impatient.

Also When the marcaine pain pump was in I had the curious side effect of having it end up numbing my entire right arm. Very disconcerting to have a "dead" arm even if it was only for 3 days. But it did make doing simple things like going to the bathroom difficult with only one working arm. Thank God for my husband who helped me through some rather embarrassing moments. My PS told me the marcaine was probably surrounding a nerve of my arm which caused this and offered to pull it out....I declined realizing how much of my chest was numb and if that was gone how much pain would I then be in?

Anyway IMO the marcaine pain pump was a godsend even with the numb arm side effect. Any one else have experience with this? Any one have one placed after TE exchange? I also bring up this topic because I knew nothing about it or the plan to place one until I woke up from surgery. So this can be an FYI for anyone else who may end up as uninformed about this wonderful contraption as I was.

Good luck to all on this rollercoaster ride they call mastectomy with TEs...it's not like we can just get off the ride until it runs it's course. One hill at a time, one day at a time!

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  • Anniekay80
    Anniekay80 Member Posts: 127
    edited January 2016

    kayb

    Thanks for your response and the info. The pain pump was great (other than the numb arm) For me the worst part was it had to come out 3rd day post op and they told my husband to pull it. No real instructions, just pull out the tubing. We ended up googling it and found a YouTube video someone made of removing their own pain pump. I don't know which of us was more scarred....my husband was afraid of doing it wrong and/or hurting me and I was afraid I would feel it coming out. They did warn us there was about 12 inches of tubing inside me that had to be pulled out....and I had 2 separate tubes..one for each breast. It ended up only stinging right at the site where it entered/exited. Boy was that strange to look at and think "all that was inside me?"

    Anyway it's good to know that the exchange should be a piece of cake after what I'm going through with the bilateral mastectomy. I can't imagine anything worse than those first few days post op. I'm just crossing my fingers I don't end up with drains again, though I probably will have them.

    So bottom line we are both in agreement that the marcaine pain pump is a medical miracle worth any small discomfort. Norco for a few days then just Tylenol and Aleve.

    Thanks again. Hope this helps someone else who wakes up after surgery wondering what is this ball in a pouch and why is it attatched to me? They can also check YouTube videos if necessary cause I certainly wasn't making one!


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  • Anniekay80
    Anniekay80 Member Posts: 127
    edited January 2016

    Thanks for the laugh kayb! 3 feet really??!!

    I'm a long way from exchange but I like to dream that it is soon. If I dream long enough eventually it will be soon. Squishy sounds soooo good.

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  • grammakathy
    grammakathy Member Posts: 407
    edited January 2016

    For my mastectomy, I didn't have a pain pump (surgery done by surgeon) but my PS inserted one when I had the second mastectomy (prophylactic) & TE placement surgery. I loved it! She didn't use one when I had my exchange but I did have short term drains following all the surgeries. She said that she wanted to make sure my cohesive gel implant didn't shift. The only rough surgery that I had was the first one done by the surgeon. There must have been a difference in the anesthesia that was used. I didn't feel back to normal for at least a month. After each of the other surgeries, I was feeling normal the next day (although the drains are a pain!).

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  • Anniekay80
    Anniekay80 Member Posts: 127
    edited January 2016

    Wow. It sounds like the plastic surgeon's are the ones who are more in favor of using these pain pumps. So sorry you had to go through your first surgery without one. Looking back on those first few days and all the pain I was in, I can't imagine how bad it would have been without that pain pump. Thank God for new and improved ways of dealing with pain other than throwing lots of narcotics at it or just telling us to grin and bear it. Hearing of others who had the exchange without need of the pump makes me rest easier.

    Thanks for responding.

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  • Anniekay80
    Anniekay80 Member Posts: 127
    edited January 2016

    No complaints here either. Just wondering why they aren't used more for other types of surgery with everyone so worried about giving out "addictive" pain medications.

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