Broken Pain Pump

I've survived the first 20 hours without injuring myself! But I had a major problem with the Stryker pain pump at about 8PM last night. I got home from the hospital and went to bed at like noon. At 8PM I woke up, yes I was tired. When I threw the covers over, my arm was under the pump line to my leg and I yanked it pretty good. While it was a good yank, I certainly had yanked the last pump line harder lots of times over the duration of using it. Often you forget it's sitting next to you and get up and walk crutch away and the pump gets yanked and even pulled off the surface it's on.

Anyway I guess this pump is more temperamental than the last because that yank must have done a number on it. I was sitting at my desk with the pump on the desk and I saw a drop of water on the pump face and once I felt wetness. At first I thought I spilled pop into the pump holder when managing the stairs with a pop and ice wrap in one hand while gripping the rail with the other so I didn't think much of it. After 20 minutes or so I noticed a puddle on the floor which threw the switch that something wasn't right. Upon examination, I discovered that the inside of the pump bag was quite wet and that the liquid certainly wasn't the color of root beer. Then the pump activated and I saw liquid drops forming near the orange connector to the pump. Uh oh. I got out a magnifying glass to further determine the extent of the damage and saw what looked more like a diagonal cut about 5/16ths of an inch beyond the connector and it appeared that the surface of the cut was red. The tube is clear and there is no red anywhere on the pump. I have red sheets on my bed, but the pump never leaked in the bed and it was on the floor the whole time I slept. This is strange. Like somebody started to make a cut when putting it together, stopped then cut a little further back. I'm thinking the cut was there already and my yanking on it opened it up. There is no way that I could have made a slice like that by yanking on it.

Ah, on to the story. By now the pump is literally squirting the medicine out. I had to stop it, but didn't know what to do so I removed the connection. Ok, I admit that wasn't the thing I should have done, but I was on oxycontin, vicodin, and was still fuzzy from sleep. There are actually directions on the pump to stop the flow, but it's written on the top and I was looking at it from the bottom. Ooops. I figured maybe I could just cut off the bad end and then reinsert the tube into the connector and it would all be good but of course once I removed the connector I could see that wasn't going to happen.

It's now about 9PM. I recalled seeing an instruction booklet in my release folder about the pump and there is a 24 hour number on there for technical assistance. I called them even though I had already began thinking of how I was going to fix the tube. The lady I spoke with said I shouldn't have removed the connector and that it is now contaminated. Ooops again; didn't think of that. She said I needed to call my doctor. After searching through a bunch of paperwork I found an after hours number to call. My doctor's answering service called Dr Anderson who told her to tell me to tell the pain pump people that they had to call Dr Anderson. So I called and left a message with the pain pump people telling them that they needed to call Dr Anderson's answering service so they could talk with Dr Anderson. Ah, once again I'm just the patient stuck in the middle of more protocol. At 5AM I haven't heard anything yet and called and left another message inquiring what was to be done. Honestly though I had already taken things into my own hands because I know the red carpet stroll that these companies do and nothing gets done and besides the more time I wasted the longer and sooner I would be in pain. It is now 8:30AM and I still haven't heard back from anyone.

Now how Ms. McGyver fixed the pump. Materials: Duct tape (YES!), an oversized wide straw, and a tampon. First cut very thin strips of duct tape and while holding the slash/hole closed stick the duct tape on the opening leaving just a 1/8" tail on one side. Tuck that tail around the tube and press firmly, but try not to press so hard that you open up the slit! Continue wrapping that strip of duct tape then the next and so on until you have about 1/2" wrapped on both sides of the hole. In my case since it was near the connector I also wrapped the connector with duct tape to get a better hold and seal over the hole. 

I decided to use the small pusher of a tampon applicator because of its stiffness; a regular drinking straw or two stacked would work too. Cut the applicator down to about 2" and cut a slit in it from one end to the other. Fold the tube over on itself so the loop is closest to you then thread both tubes into the applicator through the slit then secure it all around with duct tape. Next I took a large mouth 1/2" straw and cut it about 2 1/2" long and slit it all the way up. Again fold the tube over on itself but the loop will be furthest away from you. Holding the folded tubes together with the already duct taped mess slide the large straw over everything. Again wrap the entire thing with duct tape. The idea is to make it strong enough and stiff enough to withstand any future yanks and stress which is accomplished by having it fold over on itself so yanks are distributed to the folds and duct tape rather than the length with the hole that is now sandwiched between. If your hole isn't at the connector you can skip the large tube and just use the small one.

I rinsed off the tube connector and the pump connector with alcohol and stuck it back together. Works like a charm! Yeah! So I'm a little long winded this morning, hope you enjoyed my story about duct taping together medical equipment to get it to work! Perhaps I should send in my idea.