Shoulder Pain Pump Patient: Pain is "Absolutely Terrible"

Wisconsin Rapids, WITyler S. is trying to determine whether or not the use of the shoulder pain pump following his shoulder surgery might have caused his current pain. Tyler (not his real name) says he is dealing with constant pain and says his shoulder problems have had a serious impact on his life.

"I had the surgery for my rotator cuff on January 11, 2009," Tyler says. "The pain pump was put in for about 5 days, and I was fine for the first month or month and a half. Since then, I've had severe pain in my shoulder. It's been five or six months that it's gone on. It radiates down my arm to my elbow and wrist.

I get anywhere from 2 to 4 hours of sleep a night because of the pain. My kids wake up at night because I'm crying or screaming from pain. By the end of the afternoon or early evening, I have to use my left arm to move my right arm around.

I am in severe pain 24 hours a day. I drive a dump truck every day, so I can't take too many narcotics for the pain. By the time I get home from driving, I can't turn the steering wheel with my right hand at all. It's difficult—the motion is gone from my right arm. Sometimes I have a bit of motion, but it's too painful to try moving the arm, so I baby it as much as possible.

If I didn't have kids, I'd probably drink every evening to deal with the pain. It's absolutely terrible—it's there all the time. I didn't have this much pain before I had the surgery.

At first, I thought it was something I did in physical therapy, after the surgery. I thought I overdid it or something. But now I see what is going on with the pain pumps, so I know it's just not me.

If there are problems with the pain pump, why are they still using it? Why make people go through this unnecessarily? I'm a single father of 2 and this has taken my summer away with my kids. I can't play football or basketball with them. It limits everything I do."