Re: - Baclofen pump and blood pressure

July 8, 2000

We are really excited about how great you are doing. Tom has not had any

blood pressure problems, thank goodness. But after the surgery they did hook

him up to an apnea monitor to record his breathing. Baclofen can cause

breathing problems, so they were being cautious. But the alarm would go off

everytime he dosed off to sleep! He was extremely nauseated, and the alarm

was wearing on his nerves. After several hours, a nurse finally adjusted the

patches, and that helped a lot.

I think you'll find the physically therapy will help you regain some of you

reflexability. The more limper you are the better you will walk!

A medronics rep was at Tom's replacement surgery last April. The battery

wears out about every 5 years, and a new pump has to be installed. But that

surgery is outpatient and a breeze compared to what you have went through.

Tom had the pump replaced in the morning, and they found an anesthesia that

didn't upset his stomach, so by noon we were actually sitting in a restaurant

eating lunch! Tom said he felt great, I guess I was expecting something

similar to the initial pump surgery, but it wasn't at all.

Don't forget a refill appointment, or an alarm will go off about every 5

minutes until you can make it to the doctors office! It's not loud, unless

you are trying to sleep, and then it is annoying. We put a pillow over Tom's

stomach when he accidentally missed an appointment, which happened to be on a

Friday! About Sunday evening the alarm started.

If you pass through a metal detector at an airport, show them your ID card,

before you enter. We forgot about that too, always have to learn the hard way

If your blood pressure stays high, they might want to lower your dosage a

bit, and increase it slowly. Hope it can be controled without an adjusted

though.

Continue keeping us posted on your progress. I know you are floating on cloud

nine!

Trish

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