hello, this is my 1st post here but ive been checking it out for a while. i herniated my disc last febuary and went through a bunch of stuff{pt,drx9000,cortozone shots,etc..}and never really got to be 100 percent but was able to work and get buy with some pain. well, its acting up again, so i went to the doctor and got another shot which did nothing. he sugested i have a discogram, so i did, on wenseday. well damn, i have a ton more pain than before the discogram. is this normal. i cant even friggin deal with it anymore,just want it to be done with.i get so damn depressed and upset cause theres so much i want to do but cant. :confused:

Hi Turbot-
Gosh, I am sorry to hear of your pain. It is, unfortunatley, very common for people to have a big increase in pain after a discogram. My doc calls that test a 'painogram'! I haven't had to have that test but I sure have heard about it from many who have had it. It is a bear. I hope your doc told you to expect this pain but if not, now you know. Call in to the office and let them know you are going to have to increase your pain medication until things calm down. I think it can take a week to 3 or more weeks for the pain to let up. Sorry.
I am no stranger to your other emotions, i.e., frustration and discouragement. I have bad moments every single day. Just tonight I asked the walls if I would ever be free of pain again. And at 44, that's a sad question. I guess the answer is that I will likely feel better than this some day. But I do think most of us have unreasonable expectations. We expect to be fixed in a hurry and fixed completely. And maybe that is a little bit ridiculous considering our underlying problems. But maybe not for you?
I can say that if you have a serious disk injury or any other significant back problem, it is going to take a good deal of time before you are out of the woods. The process we have to go through is lengthy. All the tests, all of the less-invasive options and so on. I went through 4 epidurals and a year of PT before my first surgery. And my surgery failed! So, my experience would underline the fact that there may not be any easy solutions. And after 3 years of this I can honestly say that 80 % of my pain and injuries have been due to my own activities (which is to say my own refusal to slow down and ease up). I have been very reluctant to accept my reduced capacities. And this in turn has led to my behaving like my old self just as soon as the pain lets up an inch. And BINGO, I am in pain again in no time!
The best advice I can give you is to slow down and ease up. Act like an injured person and let yourself heal. I lifted something I shouldn't have a month ago and I am still having pain in my left hip and leg. I hate to not lift BUT .... Suzy-Q

Hi Turbot.. welcome to the board. Your feelings are heard loud and clear and we on here really understand what you are feeling and going through. We are just like you, everyday people with serious and chronic back pain/problems.

To you discogram, I had mine last March. OUCH is a really mild way to say it was the worst pain I had ever been put under. Yes, it is very normal for you to still be in pain and it is said that it can sometimes worsen before it gets better. My personal experience was I some kind of hurting for about 2 days then it gradually began to let up. I went back to work like this though and just weathered it out. It took me a good two weeks before I was really back to my usual pain.

I too went through the decompression stuff you did and it did help my back overall, but did not resolve my problems.

That discogram is what discovered the root of my pain, when the 3 years of MRI's kept missing it. I am now fused at l4/l5 since April, as the culprit disc was this disc that had been leaking out so badly.. there was nothing but a shell left.

With this in mind, I would go through another discogram in a heartbeat, as this has been the most instrumental test to finding the source of my pain for 3 long years.

I would call and let your doctor know the amount of pain your in and see what might be offered in ways of relief until things calm down.

Besides medications..An icepack is very helpful and are you drinking lots of fluids to flush the stuff out of your system?

Hang in there. Tammy:wave:

thanks for the replys. funny that the pain is worse now than it was before. i had no pain during the discogram until i got up off the table, maybe cause i was on twilight:) . i just wish i new this was coming cause it completelly wrecked my thanksgiving weekend. now i have to wait for the results of the catscan and take it from there i guess. thanks

also forgot to say, i have no pain medication what so ever except ibuprofein. i called the doctor on friday{his day off}, instead of calling me in a script he just told me to take 600 mgs every 4 hours.:mad:

Holy Cow!! You poor thing! You should not have had to go thru the thanksgiving holiday like that with no pain medication.

What kind of doctor are you seeing? I hope a neuro or ortho spine surgeon. And if so, I would be twice as stunned that you were not given proper medication after discharge.

Upon leaving I was given a shot of morophine (as I had no sedation during the test) and then gave me oral percocet (which within a 1/2 hour I was vomiting all night). But this is an example of the pain load that comes with a discogram and you were not treated fairly at all.

At this point, I would be calling that doctor first thing and give him/her the what for, and let them know your pain level has NOT gone down and your thanksgiving was ruined due to your constant pain level and him not giving you anything.

Further, if your doctor is like this, I would seriously consider changing doctors before you get too much further into this. If you didnt get any pain meds for a discogram, how does he/she treat the surgical patients?? It wouldnt leave me with any warm fuzzies.

Take care and please keep us informed. Tammy:wave:

actually he is my pain management dr. and he specialises in the spine. he only does a few types of surgeries whith needles and stuff like that. if and when i have surgery he wont be doing it. but its pretty funny huh, pain management doctor.

Hi Turbot -
I'm with Tammy - dump this bozo! You need to see an ortho or neuro spine specialist. I am shocked to hear that 2400 mg Ibuprofen was his response. Time to move on. I'm really sorry for you. Is the pain easing up at all yet? Gosh, don't tell me the Ibu wasn't a complete cure. What a joke! Suzy-Q

yea, i gyess im starting to feel a little better. i should here from him today about the catscan results. then i guess ill start looking for a nuerosurgen which ought to be fun beings that our insurance blows. as long as i dont go crazy doing things i should be fine for now but its tough cause we have a set of 3 month old twins and its a lot of work. thats probablly what keeps me going though.:D

congrats on your babies! Good to hear it's starting to ease up again. You have my sympathies about your insurance. I had to go out of network to find my surgeon.

well it looks like i need a lamenectomy and a discectomy. i am trying to find a doctor but cant get an appoitment till the 7th and the 12th for opionons. 1 thing is for sure , i need it done.:blob_fire

grade 5 tear on the l4l5 and a grade 2 tear on the l5s1. all the pain is coming from the l4l5.:mad:

well i finnally had my discectomy done on monday and am feeling pretty good right now but taking it slow. my doctor told me ther was a lot of arthritos around the area of the disc too that he removed. so for now, im am in pretty good shape.:)