With all my replacement parts in and on my body I have to apply for a passport as “Borg” soon if it is “going” on like this. But without all this high tech there wouldn’t be much going on with me.
It always makes me a little sad when healthy adults call each other a “spaz”.
I only think: If you haven’t got a clue simply shut up!
Click here on the picture!
Spasticity occurs due to neural damages. The reasons are various, e.g. genetic defect, stroke or as in my case an injury of the spinal cord.
My damaged nerve endings got bored in a way six month after the accident, and they decided to give my body, especially my legs, tremors.
There were such powers that I could unintentionally do a backbend where only heels and shoulders were touching the bed.
In that time the spasticity increased daily. Some day one has reached the end of the medication dose that can be delivered with pills.
There is an ingenious solution, an
Implanted Medication Pump.
This pump is “embedded” surgically under the skin in the abdomen. From there a tube (catheter) is going to the spine. There is a needle which delivers the medication into the intrathecal space where fluid flows around the spinal cord. Because the medication is delivered directly to where it’s needed instead of tablets going through stomach, intestine, blood…, only small amounts of medication are needed.
The pump is programmable from the outside. To refill it the skin and a small silicone membrane in the pump are pierced with a needle.
Such a refilling with the amount of three-quarter of a champagne glass is enough for around 6 months for me.
After 7 years the batteries of the pump are empty and I have to go under the knife again. But I don’t mind…!!!
Just in time for my last birthday the pump got additionally filled with morphine against the pain. What a trip, I’d rather be boozed!!!
Translator BL
Tags: Technical Aids, Hospital, Medication Pump, Tips and Tricks